E-Paper
CID charge sheet names Naidu as key accused in Andhra Fibernet scam
CID said Naidu had personally got Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad appointed as a member of the governing council
Hyderabad
The Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh Police on Friday filed the charge sheet in the AP Fibernet project scam case in a special court for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases in Vijayawada, naming Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu as the prime accused, an official statement said.
The other accused in the case, according to CID authorities, are Vemuri Hari Krishna Prasad, managing director of Net India in Hyderabad, who was a member of the governing council in the e-governance authority during the Naidu regime, and Koganti Sambasiva Rao, presently commercial manager in South Central Railway, who worked as managing director of AP State Fibernet Ltd.
The case pertained to the previous TDP government awarding the project aimed at providing high-speed internet, TV and phone service from a single broadband connection at a nominal cost to Tera Software Ltd, a company blacklisted by the Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd (INCAP) for non-compliance of electronic point of sale (EPOS) and was barred from participating in any tenders floated by AP Technological Services Ltd.
The CID said Naidu, the then chief minister, was holding the portfolio of the energy, infrastructure and investment department. He personally recommended getting the Phase 1 of the AP Fibernet Project worth ₹330 crore executed by the energy, infrastructure and investment department, instead of the IT department. Several alleged irregularities took place, from allotting tender to completion of the project, resulting in a loss to the exchequer, it said.
In September, the CID filed a memo in the ACB court, stating that a criminal case was booked in the AP Fibernet (phase-1) project scam under Sections 166 (public servant disobeying law), 167 (public servant making false document), 418 (deliberate cheating to cause loss), 465 (forgery), 468 (falsification of documents), 471 (fraudulently using a forged document), 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 506 r/w 120-B (criminal breach of trust with criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code, besides relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
Naidu had personally got Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad appointed as a member of the governing council, the CID said. He gave the approval for the estimates of the Fibernet project without considering the fact that no market survey was done for the prices of the items or the standards to be followed.
“Naidu brought pressure on the senior government officials to include Prasad in various tender evaluation committees and revoke the blacklisting of Tera Software Pvt Ltd,” the CID said in the charge sheet.
Prasad, along with Sambasiva Rao, had prepared the estimates for the project in an arbitrary manner without any market survey, extending the last day for filing the bids so Tera Software Pvt Ltd could be removed from blacklist, it said.
“The deviations committed in execution of AP Fibernet phase-I contract, caused a loss of about ₹114 crores to the state exchequer. There would be further losses caused by expensive operation and maintenance works and loss of revenue owing to 80% unusable optic fiber,” the CID said in the charge sheet.
In October, Naidu filed petitions seeking anticipatory bail, initially before the ACB court and then in the state high court in the AP Fibernet cases. Both the courts declined to grant anticipatory bail. He then approached the Supreme Court in November, seeking anticipatory bail. Hearing on his petition is pending, the CID said.
TDP leaders refused to comment on the filing of charge sheet.
