Skill Development Case: Chandrababu Naidu was granted regular bail by the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday in the skill development case. The Telugu Desam Party chief is on interim bail till November 28. On October 31, the High Court had granted four weeks’ interim bail to the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on medical grounds. Chandrababu will have to appear in the ACB court on November 30. The judgment was delivered by Justice T Mallikarjuna Rao, before whom Naidu’s bail plea came.
Naidu got interim bail for four weeks
Earlier in October, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief was granted four weeks’ interim bail on health grounds. His advocates informed the court that Naidu needed bail to undergo cataract surgery. The court had also directed Naidu to furnish a surety bond of Rs 1,00,000. The TDP chief was also ordered to give details of the treatment given to him and the hospital where he was treated, in a sealed cover, to the Central Prison Superintendent at the time of surrender.
Arrested on 9 September
Naidu was in judicial custody for 53 days for misappropriation of funds from the Skill Development Corporation. After this, the state exchequer suffered a loss of more than Rs 300 crore. He was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on September 9 in the multi-crore skill development scam case. Naidu’s arrest sparked a political turmoil in the state with many TDP leaders alleging that the arrest was nothing but a political vendetta. Naidu was arrested on false charges.
Apart from the skill development case, Naidu has been named as an accused in two other corruption cases namely Fibernet scam and Inner Ring Road scam. The Fibernet case pertains to embezzlement of Rs 330 crore in Phase-1 of the Andhra Pradesh Fibernet project. The CID has alleged irregularities in the project from award of tender till completion of the work, causing huge loss to the state exchequer.
