CID seeks Chandrababu Naidu’s custody in another corruption case

Vijayawada, Sep 19: The Andhra Pradesh Police's CID has filed a Prisoner Transit (PT) warrant petition against TDP President and former Chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in FiberNet scam even as he remained in judicial custody in the skill development scam.

The CID on Tuesday filed the petition in Vijayawada ACB Court seeking custody of Naidu in the third graft case.

The investigating agency had filed a PT warrant petition against Naidu in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road case on September 11, two days after he was arrested and sent to judicial custody in multi-crore skill development scam.

The court on Tuesday adjourned hearing on CID petitions for Naidu’s police custody in skill development and Inner Ring Road cases to September 21 in view of the hearing of Naidu’s petition for quashing of the cases in the High Court.

Naidu has moved the High Court seeking quashing of the FIR and his judicial remand in skill development. The court on Tuesday reserved its judgment.

The High Court adjourned to September 21 hearing on Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief’s petition for anticipatory bail in Inner Ring Road case.

According to CID, all the three scams happened when Naidu was the Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019. The CID has alleged that the work order for the first phase of the AP FiberNet Project of Rs.321 crore was allotted to Terasoftware in violation of rules and by manipulating the tender process. The project was aimed at providing optical fiber connectivity to villages and towns across the state.

According to the CID, several irregularities took place in AP State FiberNet Ltd (APSFL) from the allotting of tender till completion of the project, causing huge loss to the government. The CID had registered the FIR for cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and Prevention of Corruption Action (PCA) against former member of eGovernance Authority S. Vemuri Hari Krishna Prasad, Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra (INCAP) CMD K. Sambasiva Rao, Terasoftware MD Tummala Gopichand and Himachal Futuristic Company.

With the CID filing PT warrant petition, Naidu is likely to approach the High Court for anticipatory bail in the FiberNet scam.

The opposition party has already termed the cases politically motivated. It alleged that the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government is trying to target Naidu with an eye on the upcoming elections.