New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary Nara Lokesh has termed the arrest of party president and his father N. Chandrababu Naidu by the Andhra Pradesh CID in the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam as “unfair”.
During an exclusive interaction with ThePrint, Lokesh pointed out that other states, including Gujarat under Narendra Modi as chief minister, had implemented “similar projects with the same companies”.
Naidu was arrested on 9 September from his Hyderabad residence in an early morning raid, and termed a prime suspect in the scam which is also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Officials in the chief minister’s office (CMO) had earlier told ThePrint that the scam pertained to a Rs 3,356 crore deal that the Andhra government purportedly entered into with a consortium comprising the German company Siemens, Industry Software India Ltd, and DesignTech Systems Pvt Ltd for skill development centres in the state. The project was to be executed by Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC).
The project agreement was allegedly set into motion soon after Naidu became Andhra chief minister in June 2014. Naidu’s tenure ended in 2019 with YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy taking over as CM.
“We looked at models across the country. And, in fact, it’s Gujarat that did the exact agreement with Siemens, DesignTech and the state government in a 90:10 model where 90 per cent comes in as grant in aid and 10 per cent is invested by the state government,” said Lokesh.
“Naidu saw the project and fell in love with it. He said it was a proven model. A delegation of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers from Andhra Pradesh went, came back and recommended that immediate funds should be released,” he added.
The CID has alleged that the TDP government hurriedly released 10 per cent of the project cost, equaling Rs 371 crore, even before identifying the places where the skill centres would be set up.
The then chief secretary, then principal finance secretary and then special finance secretary had red-flagged the matter, according to the CID.
Lokesh, however, claimed that the then finance secretary had merely suggested that the project be rolled out as a pilot first.
“That is all that she (K. Sunitha) wrote. Mr Naidu said we don’t need a pilot because it’s already done in Gujarat. It’s implemented. It is successful. You guys have seen it. Let’s go ahead and do a full-fledged implementation. Is that wrong? I don’t think so,” Lokesh said, adding that “after Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh had also followed the same financial model”.
Alleging the “scam” as being “skilfully scripted, directed and executed by criminal minded Naidu,” CM Reddy had said in the assembly, “The grant-in-aid never came from Siemens, but the TDP government hurriedly paid 10 per cent of the project cost, equaling Rs 371 core (including taxes) in five tranches in a short period of three months.”
The Reddy government and the CID have also alleged that while a small part of the sum was spent on the project, money was also diverted to shell companies.
In January 2015, Naidu had virtually inaugurated 17 skill development centres across the state.
Lokesh, who has been camping in Delhi since the arrest of his father, told ThePrint: “I don’t think you can hold efficiency and speed against him (Naidu). They have not been able to prove any money trail to him or his family members whatsoever. If there’s a shell company, let them prove it. They’re just making wild allegations, while we have released all the payments done by DesignTech to different partners, including Siemens.”
“How is the CM of a state responsible for a private company allegedly not paying GST (Goods and Services Tax)? How can he be held responsible?” he asked.
Lokesh also said that while there was “no evidence” to connect the case against Naidu with the BJP, which is in power at the Centre, the “lack of progress” in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) case against Reddy amounted to “justice being delayed”.
The CBI had filed a case in 2012 against Reddy alleging that he had, in a criminal conspiracy with others, received bribes from companies and individuals as a “quid pro quo” for securing favours from the Andhra Pradesh government headed by his father, the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, from 2004 to 2009.
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‘TDP neither in INDIA bloc nor NDA’
Addressing a press conference in Delhi last month, the former Managing Director of Siemens India, Suman Bose, a co-accused in the case, also termed Naidu’s arrest as “unjust”.
The Andhra CID has said that, regarding the skill development centres in the state, an internal probe carried out by Siemens found that Bose acted on his own without authorisation from the company’s global headquarters or its legal team.
Bose and his close associates did not give complete facts to the Siemens management or Siemens legal team regarding the agreement being made with the APSSDC, according to the CID.
Referring to Bose, Lokesh said: “Mr Bose was the same person in 2013 when the then CM (of Gujarat) Narendra Modiji exchanged an agreement (for a similar project). I have videos to show that.”
Lokesh further said that during his stay in the Capital, he had not met anyone from the BJP or Congress, adding that he did meet leaders from other regional parties.
“I have not come across anything that really states that there is a role of the BJP in this entire episode,” said Lokesh, who has also been served a notice to appear before the CID on 10 October in connection with alleged irregularities in the alignment of Amaravati Inner Ring Road. He has dubbed the charges as “false and trumped up”.
Lokesh exuded confidence that the TDP, in an alliance with actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena, would win the next state polls. Kalyan, he said, had made it clear that it was for the BJP to decide if it wanted to be part of the formation.
“As of now, the TDP is neither in the INDIA bloc (opposition alliance) nor the NDA bloc (leading the central government). We are with the people. We are in the Andhra Pradesh bloc. And I have made it amply clear that if anyone wants to fight against this tyrant government, because we have a mad person as a chief minister, (they are) more than welcome to join,” Lokesh said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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