Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu has been named the main accused.
In a chargesheet filed by the Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh Police, in connection with the Rs 114-crore AP Fibernet Scam case. The chargesheet was filed on Friday, in the Vijayawada ACB Court.
Besides Naidu, the CID also named V Hari Krishna Prasad, managing director, Net India, Hyderabad, and K Sambasiva Rao, IRTS officer, as the other accused persons.
“Naidu, the then chief minister, was holding the portfolio of the energy, infrastructure and investment department. He personally recommended getting the fiber net project executed,” the CID said in a statement.
It said the tender process was manipulated to allot a work order of Phase – 1 of the AP Fibernet Project of Rs 330 crore to a favoured company.
The alleged tender manipulation case occurred during the erstwhile TDP government between 2014 and 2019.
The CID also said several alleged irregularities took place, from allotting of tender to completion of the total project, resulting in a huge loss to the exchequer.
As per the CID chargesheet, Naidu had approved the estimate 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.
Further, the CID noted that the former Chief Minister allegedly pressurised senior government officials to include Hari Krishna Prasad in various tender evaluation committees, revoke the blacklisting of Terasoftware Pvt Ltd, and ultimately award the tender to the same company, among other irregularities.
The chargesheet by the CID also highlighted that the accused persons allegedly channelised the misappropriated funds through a web of companies allegedly belonging to their associates using fake invoices.