VIJAYAWADA: The State government has issued ad interim orders permitting the AP-CID to attach seven immovable properties of the accused in the alleged FiberNet scam and representatives of Tera Software Limited. The government issued GO 180 on October 31, authorising the CID to attach the assets identified during the case investigation.
As per the order, the seven properties (residential flats, plots and agricultural land) are located in the municipal corporation limits of Guntur and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad in Telangana.
The properties include a residential plot of 797 square yards at Koritepadu in Guntur and a residential flat (No 503) of 48.35 square yards in Hema Heritage in Kirlampudi Layout in Visakhapatnam owned by Netops Fiber Solutions LLP, represented by its director Kanumuri Koteswara Rao, five properties registered on the names of its managing director Tummala Gopichand and his wife Pavana Devi at Jubilee Hills, Kesava Nagar, Srinagar Colony, Yousufguda and Chinamangalaram.
The alleged FiberNet scam took place during the previous TDP regime, while the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was holding the portfolios of energy, infrastructure and investments. Irregularities allegedly took place in awarding the work tender for Phase-1 of the AP FiberNet Project of Rs 330 crore to Tera Software Limited, which was blacklisted by the Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited (INCAP) for non-compliance with electronic point of sale (EPOS).
The CID had informed the government that the former CM is A 25 in the case. It was alleged that Naidu conspired with Vemuru Harikrishna Prasad and Tummala Gopichand, and awarded the AP FiberNet project to Tera Software in a fraudulent manner using fake experience certificates, which had caused a huge loss to the State exchequer.
The CID informed the government that the seven properties need to be attached under the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944, to prevent disposal or concealment of wrongful gain obtained by means of offence by the accused and accused firms. Principal Secretary (Home) Harish Kumar Gupta, in the orders, also directed APCID chief N Sanjay to apply to the ACB Special Court in Vijayawada to make the orders absolute.