After AAP leader Manish Sisodia, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Tuesday arrested Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramachandran Pillai from Delhi, in connection with the Delhi liquor scam case. Delhi court sent Arun Pillai to ED remand till March 13, in connection with its ongoing probe in the Delhi excise policy case.
Earlier in October 2022, Abhishek Boinpalli, an associate of Arun Pillai has been arrested by CBI in the Delhi liquor scam case.
Arun Pillai has allegedly worked with BRS MLC and Telangana CM's daughter K Kavitha, said an India Today report. The ED had filed a remand report in which Kavitha's name cropped up. The BRS leader was questioned by the probe agency on December 11, 2022, at her residence in Hyderabad.
As reported earlier, after being interrogated by CBI for nearly seven hours, Kavitha said that the allegations against her in Delhi liquor scam case are "bogus and false". The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader termed the allegations against her a "political vendetta" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and claimed that time will prove her sincerity. The CBI on November 25 filed its first charge sheet in the case against seven accused.
According to the ED, the South Group comprising Kavitha, Aurobindo Pharma director Sharat Chandra Reddy and YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasula Reddy paid kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP to gain control over the liquor business in the national capital.
The South Group allegedly bagged wholesale trade and several retail zones. The ED alleged that Kavitha holds 65 per cent stake along with the Magunta family through her proxy Arun Pillai in Indospirit, which made at least Rs 195 crore as profit by selling 14 crore bottles in retail.