Naidu faces new warrant in FiberNet scam case

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh Police have filed a prisoner transit (PT) warrant seeking the custody of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in AP FiberNet Scam case, alleging a loss of Rs 114 crore to the state government. Special Public Prosecutor YN Vivekananda, representing AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) said that the warrant was filed in the ACB Court in Vijayawada late on Tuesday.

The state CID has alleged that tender manipulation was done in the case to allot work order under Phase-1 of the AP FiberNet Project of Rs 330 crore to a favoured company. Several irregularities took place from the allotting of the tender to completion of the total project, causing a huge loss to the exchequer, according to a note circulated to reporters from government sources.

Further, sub-standard material, violating the conditions and non-adherence to the specifications mentioned in request for proposal (RFP) while executing the project resulted in nearly 80 per cent of the capacity of the optic fiber cable becoming unusable, it said.

As the erstwhile chief minister, Naidu, who was holding the portfolios of energy, infrastructure and investment departments allegedly personally recommended the FiberNet project to be executed by the Energy I & I Department, instead of the IT Department. Further, Naidu allegedly approved the estimates of this project without considering the fact that market survey was not undertaken and coerced officials to include one Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad in various tender evaluation committees.

The then government allotted the project to Tera Software company, which was blacklisted earlier. It revoked this blacklisting before awarding the contract, despite protests by other bidders.