Former Director Of Siemens Industrial Among Those Detained By ED In Connection With The Andhra Skill Development Scam

In connection with the multi-million dollar Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation scandal, the Enforcement Directorate said on March 14 that it had detained Soumyadri Shekhar Bose, a former managing director of Siemens Industrial Software (India) Private Limited.

They were detained by the ED and brought before the Vishakapatnam Special PMLA Court, which remanded the defendants for seven days, or until March 20. They were identified as Suresh Goyal, chartered accountant of SSRA & Associates; Mukul Chandra Agarwal, chief operating officer of PVSP IT Skills Projects Pvt Ltd and Skillar Enterprises Private Limited (Chattarpur); and Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar, managing director of DesignTech Systems Limited (Pune).

Based on the CID FIR, the investigation agency took up the matter.

After being detained in Noida and transferred to the state on a 36-hour transit remand, GVS Bhaskar, a former employee of Siemens Industrial Software, was presented on March 9 by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Andhra Pradesh Police.  The skill development scheme was planned to run from 2014 to 2019 under the previous Telugu Desam Party administration.

Chandrababu Naidu became the then-leader minister, while Suman Bose, the then-MD of Siemens Industrial Software India, and Vikas Kanwilkar, the then-MD of Design Tech System, reportedly met with him for the project in 2014–15.  According to the deal, Siemens Industrial Software India and Design Tech Systems will provide 90% of the funding for the initiative, with the state government providing the remaining 10%.

According to the CID, the state government’s 10% interest, or Rs 371 crore, was plundered, yet neither firm spent a single cent. Former IAS officer K Lakshminarayana and former state government special secretary Ganta Subba Rao are reported to have played important roles in the project. Furthermore, CID officials claim that the stolen cash was moved to bogus companies such as Allied Computers ($60 million), Skillers India, Cadence Partners, Knowledge Podium, and ETA Greens.

According to accounts, senior government officials disregarded former Finance Secretary Sunita’s objections to the money’s release. When the CID contacted Siemens’ German headquarters, it was made clear that Bose had taken the action that led to the termination of the employment of his own free will.

Scam in skill development in Andhra Pradesh 

On June 30, 2015, the state government authorized the APSSDC to sign an agreement with Siemens Industrial Software (India) Private Limited (SISW), New Delhi, an entity of SIEMENS, and DesignTech, Pune, for the establishment of skill development centers.  The CID is believed to have detailed the history of its counters (clusters).

It was decided to establish six clusters at selected educational institutions, each with a Center of Excellence (COE) and six Technical Skill Development Centers (TSDCs).  It was predicted that each cluster would cost Rs 546 crore.Over Rs 3,281 crore was spent on the project overall, with Siemens and Design Tech contributing.obligated to pay 90% as grant-in-aid and the state government the remaining 10%, or approximately Rs 370 crore.

According to the investigative agency, the APSSDC entered the agreement without referencing the amount of the grant-in-aid from Siemens and DesignTech. Ghanta Subbarao signed the contract on behalf of APSSDC, while Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar, MD of DesignTech, followed suit, as did Soumyadri Shekhar Bose, aka Suman Bose, the previous MD of SISW.  Even though the other party hadn’t started any work or given any services, the APSSDC had already granted Rs 371 crore to DesignTech. This was done before even identifying the educational institutions.

Curiously, the Finance Department objected at this point, but despite this, the money was issued on the false assumption that if it wasn’t, the grant-in-aid would expire.  Following the agreement, DesignTech was to collaborate with SISW as the proposer, implementer, and system integrator for the entire project and establish the clusters. Another flaw, according to the CID, was that neither the state-level monitoring committee, the local boards of governance, nor another monitoring group established by the government to oversee the project had any review meetings.

According to reports, the CID investigators discovered that Design Tech had a subcontract with PVSP IT Skills Pvt. Ltd. (later renamed M/s Skillar Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd.), which had been formed barely one month after the APSSDC and Siemens Agreement was signed.

The business won a buy order for the supply of items worth Rs 241 crore despite having no prior experience. Allied Computers International (Asia) Ltd was identified by the Central Agencies as a shell company, and Skillar subsequently issued purchase orders to the business. It was found to be an abandoned company that had only been used to produce fictitious invoices. Similar purchase orders allegedly came from a number of made-up companies, including M/s. Patrick Info Services Pvt Ltd, IT Smith Solutions Pvt Ltd, and In Web Services Pvt Ltd.

After deducting the commission, the money was purportedly returned to Skillar and DesignTech through the shell businesses that had allegedly produced the false invoices. According to reports, the Siemens Global Team conducted an internal investigation and concluded that Soumyadri Shekhar Bose, Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar, MD of DesignTech, and members of his project team had exploited the invoices generated by the shell businesses to divert APSSDC monies.

The digital information (WhatsApp talk and email communication) that Soumyadri Shekhar Bose and his colleagues purportedly erased from their laptops and mobile devices appears to have been recovered by Siemens, the bail pleas of Soumyadri Shekhar Bose and Mukul Chandra, another accused party and former PVSP IT Skills Project employee.  After hearing the defense and prosecution’s arguments, the judge postponed making any decisions.

The CID will issue notifications to other authorities implicated in the scheme.

To make up for their 10% part of the project’s cost, which came to Rs 371 crore (including 10% GST), Siemens Industrial Software India and Design Tech diverted a large portion of the money from the AP government. Reports state that the money was later transferred to sham companies. The fraud was detected while the Siemens Global Corporate Office was looking into the project internally. They found that money had been misappropriated.

Afterward, the GST intelligence wing and IT department looked into the cash siphoning. According to the announcement, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) received complaints about these claims from a whistleblower in 2018, after which significant documentation evidence was deleted from the state secretariat.

According to official sources, the CID investigation uncovered two important players: Ganta Subbarao, the corporation’s former MD and CEO, and Dr. Sakshi Narayana, a retired IAS officer who served as the corporation’s director. The CID opened an investigation in September 2021 after receiving a complaint from APSSDC chairman K. Ajay Reddy.