ED: Kavitha Paid Rs 100 Cr Bribe for Liquor Deal with Kejri, Sisodia
HYDERABAD: Alleging that BRS MLC K. Kavitha, the daughter of former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, was one of the kingpins and a key conspirator benefitting from the Delhi liquor policy scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in their remand diary that she had orchestrated a deal with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and then Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and had paid Rs 100 crore kickbacks, along with the ‘South Group’, through a string of intermediaries and middlemen.
A day after ED officials arrested Kavitha from her palatial residence located at Banjara Hills in the city, the agency officials shifted her to Delhi’s ED office and produced her before the Rouse Avenue court. Later, the ED filed a petition seeking 10 days police custody for questioning her in connection with the Delhi liquor scam case. The court granted seven days police custody.
The court allowed her family members and advocates to meet Kavitha every day during the police custody period, and asked ED officials to produce her before the court at about noon on March 23 at the end of her custody period.
While entering the court premises, Kavitha said her arrest was illegal, and that she would fight it before the court. Her husband D. Anil Kumar accompanied Kavitha till the court premises.
In the remand petition, ED officials said that Kavitha had played a key role in the South Group with other members — ‘Aurobindo’ Sarath Reddy, Magunta Raghava Reddy, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and conspired with the top leaders of AAP and gave them kickbacks to the tune of `100 crore and in exchange got undue favours in the Delhi liquor policy formulations and implementation.
“The profit margin of the wholesaler was increased to 12 per cent so that out of this margin, a portion of it could be taken back as kickbacks. This was done to create a continuous stream of illegal funds for the AAP in the form of kickbacks from the wholesalers and for the South Group to recover the kickbacks paid and further generate profits from this entire conspiracy,” the ED said in the report.
Statements recorded by ED:
June 17, 2023: Then YSRC Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy’s statement said Kavitha had approached him to do liquor business in Delhi and offered to pay Rs 100 crore to the AAP. He said that Kavitha had told him she would call him in connection with the liquor business. Kavitha called on March 19, 2021, and asked Srinivasulu Reddy to meet her. Srinivasulu Reddy met her at her residence and Kavitha told him that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had spoken to her and asked for `100 crore. Srinivasulu Reddy said Kavitha told him to arrange Rs 50 crore for the same. Kavitha told him that her CA Grantla Buchi Babu would visit him and his son Raghava Reddy Magunta to coordinate. Buchi Babu and Abhishek Boinapalli collected Rs 25 crore from Raghava Reddy.
June 27, 2023: Raghava Reddy said that on March 28, 2021, an amount of Rs 10 crore in cash which was delivered by his staffer Gopi Kumaran to an address given by Buchi Babu in Chennai and in June 2021, Rs 15 crore in cash was delivered by Gopi Kumaran to an address given by Abhishek Boinapalli.
August 8, 2023: The ED recorded a statement of Gopi Kumaran who stated that he delivered Rs 25 crore in cash on two occasions, Rs 10 crore and Rs 15 crore respectively, to certain persons on the instruction and address given by Raghava Magunta.
April 29, 2023: P. Sarath Reddy, Aurobindo Pharma director, revealed that sometime in March 2021, Arun Ramachandran Pillai (owner of Indo Spirits) contacted him and informed that there was a new business opportunity in the Delhi liquor business and Kavitha was in discussion with Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia with reference to the then upcoming policy through Vijay Nair who proposed that if Kavitha provided Rs 100 crore to Kejriwal and Sisodia, they would amend and implement the liquor policy beneficial to Kavitha.