In the ongoing saga of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest in the Skill Development scam, a peculiar press conference last week in New Delhi by the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) chief on the case has raised eyebrows. CID chief N Sanjay along with Andhra Pradesh Additional Advocate General (AAG) P Sudhakar Reddy held a media briefing on September 17 in Delhi, to counter the statements on the case by Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh, who in media interviews given at the national capital, defended his father. Journalists in Delhi covering crime said it was very unusual that a senior police official and a state-appointed advocate were holding a press meet, far away, in the national capital.
Two senior reporters in Delhi told TNM that the press conference was unusual. “I haven’t seen CID officials from states doing such a thing. When all the Director Generals of Police are in town for an event, sometimes a few of them hold press conferences in their state Bhavans. But I have never heard of any CID, except Delhi police, holding a press conference here,” said a veteran journalist working for a national English daily.
At the press conference, Sanjay and Sudhakar Reddy rebuked Lokesh’s statements on different aspects of the case. Lokesh had earlier said his father’s arrest was a bid to tarnish his image and also claimed that over 2 lakh people were trained in the Skill Development scam. Naidu is one of the accused in a case in which the AP CID cites a misappropriation of Rs 371 crore. Sanjay, at the press conference, said that the CID is only talking about the “outflow” of money in the financial year 2015-2016. “In other subsequent years, the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) had released money, and training programmes were conducted with other companies,” he said.
The press conference, in essence, was a narrative-building exercise by the AP CID to ensure that their version of Naidu being at fault is not lost.
This comes just a week after the Supreme Court directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to prepare a manual within three months on media briefings by the police to ensure that there is no ‘media trial’ by the police. Taking objection to ‘media trials’ in a case from 2017, the Supreme Court directed the Union Home Ministry to prepare guidelines for police personnel to follow during press briefings in relation to criminal cases.
The senior reporter from the national daily added that in high-profile cases if questions are raised against the police, the department speaks to defend itself. “There is no precedent like this. States also have a Resident Commissioner, an IAS officer, who usually sends information on behalf of the state,” he added. Another senior journalist from a national TV channel covering crime recalled that the AP CID held a press conference in April in the Margadarsi Chit Fund case.
The Margadarsi Chit Fund is run by the family of Ramoji Rao, who runs the Telugu daily Eenadu. The AP CID booked over half a dozen cases last year amidst continuous face-off between the Eenadu group and the YSRCP government, run by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Telugu daily had accused the Jagan government of promoting sales of Sakshi newspaper (Jagan’s family) by releasing a GO in 2022 which granted an allowance of Rs 200 per month to 3.78 lakh state government employees and volunteers working with ward/village secretariats to subscribe to one newspaper. Eenadu alleged that it was done to ensure rising sales of Sakshi.
When asked why the press conference by AP CID chief Sanjay was held in Delhi, a YSRCP functionary said that it was to counter statements by Lokesh, whose interaction with the media in New Delhi had gained some traction. Usually, Lokesh’s statement would have been countered by YSRCP or government representatives.
The TDP has taken strong objection to this.
“What is the job of Sudhakar Reddy being there? Sanjay is not even the investigating officer, and both of them had no business speaking to the media in Delhi. The YSRCP clearly wanted to respond to Lokesh, and to give it a semblance of authenticity, they sent Sanjay and Sudhakar Reddy. Is the AAG even supposed to speak to the media like that?” asked TDP spokesperson Vijay Kumar.
Another reason both sides are insisting on engaging with the media in Delhi is to capture the attention of the ruling BJP. In the current political landscape in Andhra Pradesh, both YSRCP and the TDP are competing to be BJP’s allies, either formally through an alliance or by being a friendly party. Holding press conferences in Delhi will ensure their message to the BJP high command is more efficiently conveyed.
The APSSDC had signed an agreement with a consortium comprising Siemens India Software India Ltd and DesignTech Systems to train unemployed youth to make them employable. At the Delhi press conference, Sudhakar Reddy claimed that this agreement was not signed properly by the three parties and that crucial details like the Government Order that sanctioned the project were left out, among other things.