The Supreme Court, which heard former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s quash petition in the skill development case on Tuesday, October 3, has posted the matter to October 9. Naidu’s lawyers argued that the Crime Investigation Department (CID)’s case was illegal and should be quashed. The court has asked the Andhra Pradesh government to file the entire compilation of documents previously produced before the High Court, which had rejected Naidu’s quash petition, LiveLaw reported. Naidu has been jailed in judicial custody in the case for nearly three weeks, since September 11.
While Naidu’s lawyers argued against the application of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act on Naidu, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi representing the Andhra Pradesh government argued that the inquiry arose “prior to the insertion of 17A”. “Inquiry started even before this [YSRCP] government came in. CBI was seized of it in 2017 and sent it to state,” Rohatgi said. When Justice Aniruddha Bose asked, “How do we know the nature of inquiry?”, Rohatgi said he would show the relevant documents.
“You fill all the compilations which were produced before the HC. File a compilation”, said Justice Bose to Rohatgi. Rohatgi had told the court that Naidu’s quash petition in the HC was filed within three days of his arrest, and “they dumped 2000 pages before the learned judge on day one.” Advocate Siddharth Luthra, who was appearing for Naidu, disputed Rohatgi’s claim.
Naidu’s lawyers had approached the Supreme Court, after the Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed his quash petition on September 22. Earlier on September 27, Supreme Court judge Justice SVN Bhatti recused himself from hearing Naidu’s petition, Bhatti had previously worked as a judge in the AP High Court in 2019, towards the end of Naidu’s term. He had also served as a special government pleader between 2000-2003 when Naidu was CM of united Andhra Pradesh.
The YSRCP government has alleged that a multi-crore scam took place during the TDP rule when Naidu was CM, in a project that aimed to establish several skill development centres across the state to train young people with employable skills. The project involved an agreement between the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) and two private companies – Siemens Industry Software (India) Pvt Ltd and DesignTech Systems Pvt Ltd – and the state government had agreed to contribute 10% of the total project cost, which amounted to nearly Rs 371 crore (including taxes).
The YSRCP government and CID have alleged that Naidu benefited from nearly Rs 241 crore from the Rs 371 crore funds allegedly siphoned off through shell companies. While the CID’s FIR in the case was registered back in 2021, Naidu was recently labelled the ‘chief architect’ of the scam and arrested on September 9. CID has alleged that Naidu, his family, and TDP were the end beneficiaries of the government funds syphoned off through various shell companies.