ORAL ORDER:

The petitioner herein, who is arrayed as accused No.35 in Crime No.29 of 2021 on the file of CID Police Station, Andhra Pradesh, Mangalagiri, filed the present petition under Section 438 Cr.P.C., seeking pre-arrest bail.

2. The above crime was registered for the offences punishable under Sections 120-B, 166, 167, 418, 420, 465, 468, 471, 409, 201 & 109 read with Sections 34 & 37 I.P.C. and Sections 13(2) read with 13(1)(c)&(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The complaint lodged by the Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (for short, ‘the Corporation’) on 07.09.2021 is the basis for registration of the present crime.

3. The averments of the complaint, in brief, are thus:

(i) The Corporation was incorporated by virtue of G.O.Ms.No.47 (HE) (EC.A2) Department, dated 13.12.2014. The corporation deputed a team to visit SIEMENS Centers of Excellence, which were already established in Gujarat and to submit report. SIEMENS offers training program in collaboration with various State governments. During negotiations, State Government agreed to establish SIEMENS Center of Excellence, Technical Skill Development Institutions and Skill Development Centers in different clusters. Six clusters have been formed at the inception at the cost of Rs.546,84,18,908/- with SIEMENS and Design Tech providing a grant-in-aid of Rs.491,84,18,908/- i.e. 90% and the Government share thereof is 10% i.e. Rs.55,00,00,000/-. A Memorandum of Understanding was entered into between the Corporation on one hand and SIEMENS on the other.

(ii) The tax investigation by Additional Director General, GST, Intelligence, Pune, in respect of claims of availing of CENVAT credit by M/s. Design Tech Systems Private Limited and M/s. Skillar Enterprises India Private Limited led to unearthing a huge financial scam involving crores of rupees by M/s. SIEMENS Industry Software India Private Limited and M/s. Design Tech Systems Private Limited. The funds relate to the Corporation/APSSDC.

(iii) As per the Memorandum of Agreement, Design Tech has to provide training software development including various sub-modules designed for high end software for advance manufacturing CAD/CAM. Memorandum of Agreement does not contemplate sub-contract. However, SIEMENS and Design Tech sub-contracted a large part of its work to M/s. Skillar Enterprises Private Limited, New Delhi with self centric Solomon’s Wisdom. The claim of Design Tech is that Skillar Enterprises Private Limited provided training software development including various sub-modules designed for high end software for advance manufacturing of CAD/CAM. M/s. Skillar has directly supplied the same to the Skill Development Centers in Andhra Pradesh. Design Tech further claims that royalty and subscription were paid to Skillar since they have developed the software.

(iv) When the tax authorities confronted Skillar, Skillar claimed that no technical work has been sub-contracted and the training software development including various sub-modules provided are technical material and royalty and subscription have been wrongly mentioned in the invoices. Additional D.G.G.I., Pune concluded that both service provider and service receiver took contradictory stands regarding nature of service. An in-depth scrutiny into the records by A.D.G.G.I. revealed that training software development including various sub-modules shown as supplied by Skillar to Design Tech were purchased by Skillar from 1) M/s. Allied Computers International (Asia) Ltd. Mumbai (for short ‘ACI’), 2) M/s. Patrick Info Services Private Limited, M/s. I.T. Smith Solutions Private Limited, 3) M/s. Inweb Info Services Private Limited all based at New Delhi, 4) M/s. Arihanth Traders, New Delhi and 5) M/s. G.A. Sales Private Limited, New Delhi.

(v) The companies referred to supra are Shell/Defunct companies and they were issuing invoices without providing any services. All these companies formed into a cartel for siphoning public funds tuning to cro