CID charge-sheet on Chandrababu in AP Fibernet Scam, as anticipatory bail plea pending in Supreme Court

AMARAVATHI: The CID is Andhra Pradesh Government has filed a chargesheet against former Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu. The other two, amongst others, named as accused in the scam are: Vemuri Hari Krishna Prasad, Managing Director of NET INDIA, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, the then member of the Governing Council, e-Governance Authority, Electronics & IT Agency and Innovation Society, and member of Technical Evolution Committee; and Koganti Sambasiva Rao, IRTS,, formerly worked as VC&MD INCAP and MD APSFL, and currently working as Chief Commercial Manager, Passenger Marketing, South Central Railway, Secunderabad.

The CID in its chargesheet contended that it was a case of “manipulation of the tender process to allot the work order for the Phase-1 of the A.P. Fibernet Project of Rs 330 Cr to a favored company, by flouting the rules and manipulating the tender process.”

Naidu, who was holding the portfolio of the Energy, Infrastructure and Investment Department, had personally recommended getting the fiber net project executed by the Energy I&I Department, instead of the I.T. Department.

The former Chief Minister personally got Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad appointed as a member of Governing Council-Governance Authority, despite his Criminal background. gave approval for the estimates of the fiber net project without considering the fact that no market survey was done for the prices of the items or the standards to be followed.

He had brought pressure on the senior officials

a) to include Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad in various tender evaluation committees.

b) to revoke the blacklisting done by the Government, then prevailing against M/s Terasoftware Pvt Ltd.

c) to finally award the tender to M/s Terasoftware Pvt Ltd by silencing the protests from other bidders such as M/s Pace Power.

d) He got the officers such as B.Sundar,IFS, seeking a fair tender process, transferred out unceremoniously and posted more pliable officers in their place, said the charge-sheet.

Manipulation of tender process

The CID also contended that Sambasiva Rao had manipulated the tender process by appointing Vemuru Harikrishna Prasad as a member of the technical committee and tender evaluation committee.

Together, Vemuru Harikrishna Prasad and Koganti Sambasiva Rao “took part in the offence by preparing the estimates for the project in an arbitrary manner without any market survey, extending the last day for filing the bids so that M/s Terasoftware Pvt Ltd could be removed from blacklist, concealing the conflict of interest between Vemuru Harikrishna Prasad and TeraSoftware Private Limited, allowing TeraSoftware Private Limited to modify its consortium after the starting of the tender process, allotting higher technical score to TeraSoftware Private Limited through various manipulations of the Tender documents, releasing funds to TeraSoftware Private Limited- despite poor quality of work executed,etc.”

The CID charge-sheet specified: “Several irregularities took place from the allotting of Tender to till completion of the total project causing huge loss to the government exchequer. Owing to the use of substandard material, violating the conditions and non-adherence to the specifications mentioned in RFP while executing the project, nearly 80% of the capacity of the Optic Fiber Cable (OFC) was rendered unusable. This is a permanent loss to the life span of AP Fiber net. The deviations committed at the time of execution of AP Fibergrid Phase-I contract, caused a loss of about Rs. 114 Crores to the Govt Exchequer. There would be further losses caused by expensive operation and maintenance works and loss of revenue owing to 80% unusable optic fiber.

The accused channelised the misappropriated funds through a web of companies belonging to their associates, using fake invoices.”

The chargesheet also discussed the proceedings of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

It mentioned: “On March 26, 2016, during a discussion on Phase-1 of the A.P. Fiber Grid project in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the proceedings about the award of the tender to M/s Tera Software and the criminal conspiracy-based decisions in the subject matter were discussed on the floor of the Legislative Assembly regarding the Phase 1 of the AP FibreGrid Project. It was pointed out during the course of the discussion as regards the illegality of participation of Vemuru Harikrishna Prasad as a member of the Tender Evaluation Committee in the tender processs ,as Vemuru Harikrishna Prasad had a criminal record, including an arrest for stealing an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).

The investigation agency contended that the Rs. 333 crore project was awarded to Tera Software, a sister concern of Teramedia Cloud, a company in which Vemuru Harikrishna Prasad had significant shareholding.

Naidu had defended the tender process suggesting that Harikrishna Prasad had merely exposed the flaws in the EVMs did not have any conflict of interest in the tender process.

Senior IAS officers and other government officials deposed before the judicial magistrates regarding the illegal decisions involved in the tender process and execution of the project and the role of Naidu in orchestrating the whole offence.

After Naidu was arrested in the Skill Development Scam case and was sent to judicial custody by the ACB Court, the CID had filed for a prisoner transit warrant to produce the leader of the Opposition in the Fibernet Scam case, too, before the ACB Court. Naidu, however, filed petitions seeking anticipatory bail, initially before the ACB Court and then the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.

As both the courts declined to grant the anticipatory bail, he approached the Supreme Court, seeking anticipatory bail and hearing on the Special Leave Petition is pending.