New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Monday attached properties worth Rs 23.54 crore linked to top executives of two private firms, Siemens Industry Software (India) and DesignTech Systems, as part of its probe into the allegations of misappropriation of government funds in an Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation project.
Andhra Pradesh Police arrested Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in connection with this case last year in September when he was not at the helm of the state. Later in November, the high court granted Naidu bail.
The ED sources, however, confirmed to ThePrint that investigators, so far, have found no evidence substantiating Naidu’s role in misappropriating funds in the case despite unearthing a money trail of Rs 151 crore linked to the two private firms concerned and their executives.
“No facts have emerged so far linking his role in this case. A major portion of investigation has been concluded, and no role or connection of Chandrababu Naidu has been found yet,” an ED official told ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
The ED’s latest provisional attachment of properties in the case — movable properties, such as bank balance and shares, and immovable properties, such as residential ones in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Pune — took the overall attachment up to Rs 54.74 crore.
The ED’s money laundering probe stems from a case filed by the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) against DesignTech Systems and others for syphoning government funds invested in the name of setting up centres of excellence, technical skill development institutes, and skill development centres in the state.
According to the FIR by the state police, the offence was committed between 2015 and 2019 when Chandrababu Naidu was the CM. The then-additional director general of CID N. Sanjay claimed in a press conference after Naidu’s arrest that the department had prima facie evidence of Naidu’s key role in the syphoning of approximately Rs 371 crore, which belonged to the Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation.
The ED Tuesday said that DesignTech Systems Managing Director Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar and former managing director of Siemens Industry Software Soumyadri Sekhar Bose alias Suman Bose, along with their aides such as Mukul Chandra Agarwal and Suresh Goyal, diverted funds through shell companies based on bogus invoices created in the name of supply of materials and services.
The ED has identified Mukul Chandra Agarwal as a former financial advisor and authorised signatory of Skillar Enterprise India Private Limited to which Siemens Industry Software and DesignTech Systems subcontracted the project despite no such provision in the contract signed with the state government. Suresh Goyal, a chartered accountant, was roped in to divert and misuse crores of the state government funds.
Last year in March, the ED arrested all four accused, estimating a syphoning of Rs 241 crore from the state exchequer. “The ED investigation had revealed the diversion and siphoning off government funds given to DesignTech Systems Pvt Ltd through M/s Skillar Enterprises India Pvt Ltd and, then, through a web of shell companies under the guise of supply of software, hardware, materials, or services without any genuine supplies,” the agency, at the time, said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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