Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh:

A Vijayawada Anti-Corruption Bureau court on Sunday extended the judicial custody of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu till October 5 in the alleged Skill Development scam case. 

With Mr Naidu’s custody ending today, he was produced before the court virtually from Rajahmundry Central Jail in Andhra Pradesh.

The court first sent him to 14 days of judicial custody on September 10 after being produced before it by the Andhra Pradesh CID which arrested him in the early morning on September 9 in the multi-crore ‘scam’ case.

The case involves alleged misappropriation in the establishment of clusters of Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of Rs 3,300 crore.

Agency officials claimed that the alleged fraud had caused a huge loss to the Andhra Pradesh State government in excess of Rs 300 crore.

Mr Naidu on Saturday approached the Supreme Court seeking to quash the FIR against him in connection with the case after his plea for the same was rejected by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

As per the CID, Mr Naidu was the principal conspirator and “accused no 1” in the alleged Rs 371 crore skill development scam.

In its remand report, the CID has said that according to the investigation so far, the total amount spent by private entities on six skill development clusters is sourced exclusively from funds advanced by the Government of AP and AP Skill Development Centre, totalling Rs 371 crores.”

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