Following the arrest of former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in connection with the Skill Development scam, both the YSRCP and the TDP are deploying various arsenals to control the narrative ahead of elections in the state.
While the TDP unveiled a complete website today to provide the facts on the Skill Development scam, the state government has deployed the CID chief N Sanjay and additional advocate general P Sudhakar Reddy to clear the doubts over the TDP’s president’s involvement in the scam in which CID has identified Rs 241 crore as the proceeds of the crime.
The TDP’s website apskilleddevelopmenttruth.com gives the “chronology of events”, the “peer states” executing the project and “the project impact”. In the chronology of events, IAS officer L Prem Chandra Reddy who was then the departmental secretary has been mentioned repeatedly though the CID chief had played down his role, nailing Naidu for overruling objections of the officers as mentioned in the file notings by the then finance secretary and ordering the release of the government funds.
The TDP website also lists certificates to beneficiaries and the list of colleges where skill development institutes were developed though when it came to testimonials of the third party Design Tech, the site says “Video not found!!!”
Incidentally, the CID has questioned the credentials of Design Tech which investigators say was brought in illegally to siphon off the money through phony shell companies. Although the investigators are still trying to complete the money trail to Naidu, Sanjay said P Srinivas, a key aide of the former chief minister who had been close to him for years, has gone apparently to the US and another key witness also escaped abroad.
Srinivas had been raided by Income Tax Department and recently Naidu was served notice by them over an undisclosed amount of Rs 118 cr. Sanjay also cited that it was not only AP CID by ED and IT who had been investigating the scam.
He also replied to Pawan Kalyan’s allegations saying that the former chief minister had signed at least in 13 places pointing to his involvement in the scam. Sanjay was also convinced about the involvement of Nara Lokesh not only in the Fibrenet scam but the Skill Development one as well.
While TDP leader Atchen Naidu alleged that the former chief minister was “sent to remand only through propaganda,” the additional advocate general P Sudhakar Reddy said that “Naidu was confident that no one can touch him because of his influence on the judiciary. But I was the only one to stand up to him.”