AP sees high-voltage drama like a thriller movie after Naidu’s arrest

Visakhapatnam Chandrababu Naidu, the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by an ACB court on Sunday. He was arrested by the CID on Saturday for his alleged involvement in the Rs 371-crore skill development scam. Andhra Pradesh, in last two days has witnessed high-voltage drama like a Bollywood thriller following the sensational arrest of TDP national president and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu when he was resting in a bus during his ‘Babu surety, future guarantee’ roadshow at Nandyal in Kurnool in the early hours of Saturday.

With all the ingredients of an action-packed thriller, his arrest-related news has been hogging the limelight with several posts going viral and Telugu TV channels engaging in periodical debates. The arrest led to sleeping on the road on Andhra-Telangana border by filmstar and Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan, flying to Hyderabad in special flights by Naidu’s brother-in-law Nandamuri Balakrishna from Hyderabad and the TDP supremo’s lawyer from Delhi Siddharth Luthra to take up his case.

In another twist, CID in the remand report submitted before the ACB court in Vijayawada on Sunday, described Naidu as the principal conspirator in the Rs371 crore skill development scam and named him as one of the accused. The CID said GO No. 4 was issued on June 30, 2015 at the behest of Naidu to cause loss to the State exchequer and benefit private individuals.

The CID alleged there was malafide intention behind signing an MoU with Siemens to set up skill development centres through a consortium comprising Siemens, Industry Software India Ltd and Design Tech Systems Ltd and newly established AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) to set up six Centres of Excellence, The total cost of the project was estimated at Rs3,356 crore. The MoU clearly stated that 10 per cent would be grant-in-aid by the government and the balance would be contributed by the consortium. After Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy declared in the Assembly that it was a big scam during Naidu’s regime, the AP CID registered an FIR on December 9, 2021. CID alleged that Rs371 crore was released within three months of signing MoU without any follow-up action with an ulterior motive with false invoices to transfer the amounts to some shell companies.

Raises heated debate

The arrest and subsequent developments, have generated a heated debate across Andhra Pradesh at a time when the Chief Minister is on a private visit to London. The Opposition parties have condemned the arrest describing it as a political vendetta. BJP State president Daggubati Purundeswari said procedures were not followed in the arrest of Naidu. Pawan Kalyan said the Jagan Government was indulging in political vengeance and described how the authorities forced him to return from Visakhapatnam from going ahead with Jana Vani roadshow programme on October 15 last year, which subsequently led to his meeting Naidu to fight jointly against the YSRCP to dislodge it from power.