Ex-PA of Naidu returns to AP, seeks lifting of suspension order

Pendyala Srinivas, the absconding personal secretary of Chandrababu Naidu, has returned to India. He had disappeared after the investigating agency (CID) intensified its probe into the multi-crore Andhra Pradesh skill development scam case. He had reportedly fled to the United States after the CID issued a notice to him in September 2023. 

Following the probe, the Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy had issued a suspension order against the skill-sam tainted Srinivas for violating the government service scams. He was suspended from services on September 30, 2023. The AP Planning Department had issued a memo to Srinivas, who was holding a position of assistant secretary in the Planning Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh. 

Srinivas did not respond to the CID notices and fled the country to evade the interrogation in the case. After coming back to India, the former aide of Naidu has submitted a letter requesting the Government of Andhra Pradesh to lift the suspension order and restore his services. 

Notably, the Income Tax officials had conducted rains on Srinivas’s residence and other premises over five days in February 2020. These raids revealed that the infrastructure companies had sub-contracted work to several bogus entities and reportedly over Rs 2,000 crore were siphoned off through transactions. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had announced that their officials had seized ‘incriminating evidence’ from the premises during the raids. 

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