Chandrababu Naidu moves SC against FIR in skill development scam

New Delhi, Sep 23 : Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu has approached the Supreme Court (SC) against an order of the state High Court refusing to quash the FIR registered against him and to set aside his judicial remand in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam case.

A special leave petition has been filed in the Supreme Court on September 23.

On Friday, Justice Sreenivas Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court dismissed the petition filed by Telugu Desam Party chief where he had claimed that the case against him was politically motivated and the FIR registered against him should be quashed.

Later on the same day, Vijayawada ACB Court granted custody of Naidu to the CID for two days for interrogating him in Rajahmundry Central Jail where he is currently lodged.

After the end of the two-day custody, Naidu will be produced before the Vijayawada court through video-conferencing.

Naidu was arrested in the case by the CID in Nandyal on September 9. The next day, ACB Court in Vijayawada sent him to judicial custody for 14 days. The former chief minister was subsequently shifted to Rajahmundry Central Jail.

The Vijayawada Court had also rejected Naidu’s plea for house custody instead of judicial custody.

The case relates to the establishment of clusters of Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of Rs 3,300 crore when Naidu was the chief minister.

The CID claimed that the alleged fraud has caused a huge loss of Rs 371 crore to the state government. The agency claimed that an advance of Rs 371 crore, representing the entire 10 per cent commitment by the government for the project, was released before any expenditure by the private entities.