Chandrababu Naidu’s judicial custody extended till Oct 19

Vijayawada, Oct 05 (IANS) The Vijayawada ACB Court on Thursday extended the judicial custody of former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu till October 19 in the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam.

With Naidu's custody coming to an end, he was produced before the judge virtually from Rajahmundry Central Jail and the judge extended the custody by two weeks.

The court also adjourned to Friday, a hearing on Naidu's bail plea as well as a CID petition for his custody.

The CID had arrested Naidu on September 9 in the alleged scam which took place when he was the Chief Minister.

The next day the Vijayawada ACB Court sent him to judicial custody till September 22. He was subsequently shifted to Rajahmundry Central Jail. The court had later extended Naidu’s judicial custody till September 24. The same day the court sent him to two-day CID custody. On September 24, the court extended his judicial custody till October 5.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed Naidu’s petition to quash the FIR registered against him and to set aside his judicial remand. He has challenged the same in the Supreme Court.

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.

According to the CID, most of the money released by the government as advance was diverted to shell companies through fake invoices, with no actual delivery or sale of the items mentioned in the invoices, CID officials said.

The CID mentioned in its remand report that the total amount spent by private entities on six skill development clusters was sourced exclusively from funds advanced by the state government and the Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Centre, totalling Rs 371 crore.