Chandrababu Naidu’s judicial custody extended till Oct 5

Vijayawada, Sep 24: The Vijayawada ACB court on Sunday extended, till October 5, the judicial custody of TDP supremo and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam.

With Naidu’s custody ending Sunday, he was produced before the court virtually from Rajahmundry Central Jail.

Judge Hima Bindu extended the custody by 11 days.

Naidu was produced before the judge soon after his two-day police custody came to an end.

The CID officials questioned the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief for two days in jail.

The judge enquired from Naidu is he was subjected to any third degree method during the questioning.

The CID requested the court to extend Naidu’s custody for further questioning. The judge asked it to file a petition.

Naidu’s bail petition will be taken up for hearing on Monday.

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 Friday extended Naidu’s judicial custody till September 24. The same day, it sent him to two-day custody of CID.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court had on Friday dismissed Naidu’s petition to quash the FIR registered against him and to set aside his judicial remand. 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 3300 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 crores, 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.

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