The Crime Investigation Department of the Andhra Pradesh police on Monday initiated a probe into an alleged scam worth ₹3,300 crore in the AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) during the previous Telugu Desam Party regime when government had signed a memorandum of understanding with a consortium involving Siemens Industry Software India Ltd and Design Tech Systems Pvt Ltd, for executing the project worth ₹3,300 crore.
Based on the probe, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested four accused — including former managing director of Siemens Industry Software (India) Private Limited Soumyadri Shekhar Bose — in the multi-crore Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) scam.
Three other accused arrested on money laundering charges were identified as Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar, managing director of DesignTech Systems Limited (Pune), Mukul Chandra Agarwal, chief operating Officer of PVSP IT Skills Projects Pvt Ltd and Skillar Enterprises Private Limited (Chattarpur), and Suresh Goyal, chartered accountant of SSRA & Associates.
The ED arrested them and produced them in Visakapatnam Special PMLA court, which remanded them to judicial custody. ED has sought the custody of all four accused for questioning the involvement of bureaucrats and politicians.
An official release from the chief minister’s office said the CID had issued notices to former Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer Arja Srikanth, who was the managing director and chief executive officer of APSSDC in 2016.
The notices were served based on the statement given by one of the accused who expressed willingness to turn approver in the court and the deposition made by three IAS officers. According to the official release, the TDP government in 2016 established the APSSDC to cater to the unemployed youth by providing them training in various skills and making them employable.
In fact, Siemens Global Corporate Office had conducted an internal investigation into the project and realised that the project manager had siphoned off the money released by the government to shell companies as hawala, and fired him.
“In 2018, the ACB had received complaints from a whistle blower on these allegations. However, the people in power blocked any investigation from taking place and started removing key documentary evidences from the state secretariat,” the release said.
It further said the GST intelligence wing, and IT department was also investigating into the case, even before the present state government took up the investigation.
In light of the development, the investigation agency would be sending notices to other officials concerned in the case, the official release added.
YSRC leader and SAAP Chairman Siddharth Reddy squarely blamed TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for the financial scam involving crores of rupees of the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC).
Speaking to media persons, he demanded that TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh explain, who looted ₹250 crore in the name of Siemens Industry Software India Ltd and Design Tech Systems Pvt Ltd, if not Naidu in the scam.
What’s the case?
The allegation is that in 2015, officials of Siemens Industry Software India and DesignTech Systems conspired with the political executive and officials of the government of Andhra Pradesh to misappropriate funds from the state exchequer.
As part of the MoU, Siemens Industry Software India would set up six centres of excellence for skill development worth ₹3300 crore and the state would pay around 10% of the total project cost and the rest would be borne by Siemens and Design Tech as grant-in-aid. “The state government issued a GO granting a work order for ₹371 crore to Siemens and Design Tech to establish centres of excellence. No tender called for the project, and this was done without the approval from the state cabinet. In fact, the CMO even sent out a note about the project and how the state government would benefit from it,” the official release said.
It said the investigation revealed that Siemens Industry had not spent a single rupee from their own resources on this project, but in fact, siphoned off major portion of ₹371 crore contributed by the state. The money was diverted to shell companies like Allied Computers, Skillers India Pvt Ltd, Knowledge Podium, Cadence Partners and ETA Greens, the official release quoting the CID investigation said.
“With a malafide intention, the agreement was drafted without any mention of the estimated cost of the project or the 90% in-kind grant to be given by Siemens and DesignTech. Ghanta Subba Raoand Dr K Lakshminarayana drafted the agreement in the form of a work order of Rs 370 crore being given by the APSSDC to Siemens and Design Tech. When the fraud got exposed in 2017-2018, the note files were destroyed illegally,” alleged CID.
The then government of AP officials released Rs 370 crore against the guiding principles of AP civil works code and financial code of AP as advance to the Design Tech without even initiating the project.
An amount of Rs 241 crore was diverted to a newly established company PVSP / Skillar Enterprises under the guise of project management as planned by Suman Bose and Vikas Khanvelkar with the active role of one Mukul Chandra Agarwal.
This was identified in 2017-2018 by the central agencies such as directorate general (GST Intelligence) and income tax department when they detected a modus operandi of bogus invoices, without delivery of any goods or services.
