PNS | HYDERABAD
BRS leader MLC K. Kavitha has been named in the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi excise case.Although Kavitha is not listed as an accused, the chargesheet has details of her alleged involvement in the case based on the incriminating statements of the accused.
Apart from Kavitha, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and YSRCP MP Magunta have been named in the second chargesheet filed in the Delhi Liquor scam.In the 468-page supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED in the Delhi Liquor Policy case, Kavitha’s name has been mentioned 46 times but there are no new charges against her. Her name comes up as the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister whose name has been mentioned once.
“Mrs K. Kavitha, the daughter of K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the CM of Telangana, is the one who is representing as per the confession of Sameer Mahendru,” says the ED chargesheet.
Kavitha’s name is mentioned among those who have already been probed. Kavitha’s name was also mentioned among those who allegedly destroyed evidence. ED officials said in the chargesheet that Kavitha attended the meetings held at the Delhi Oberoi Hotel.
A part of the alleged Rs 100 crore “kickbacks” generated in the scrapped Delhi excise policy was used in the AAP campaign in the 2022 Goa Assembly election, the ED claimed in its second chargesheet in the case in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is an accused.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the cases filed by the agency were “fake” and is aimed at “toppling” governments.The ED named 17 individuals and companies in this supplementary chargesheet including AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair (39), promoter of liquor company Indospirit, Sameer Mahandru, liquor company Buddy Retail Pvt Limited Director Amit Arora (45), the General Manager of leading French wine company Pernod Ricard Benoy Babu (44), the whole-time director and promoter of Aurobindo Pharma, P. Sarath Chandra Reddy, (37) and Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally, (36). All these people are in judicial custody at present.
A DANICS officer who served as Sisodia’s secretary said that this is the first time that he saw these proposals in the draft GoM report (that is, the document handed over to him) and he was directed to prepare the report on the basis of the said document, the chargesheet said.
It also claimed that a close aide of the Delhi Chief Minister “arranged a video call through facetime (a video calling facility on iPhone) on his phone for Sameer (Mahandru) and Arvind Kejriwal, in which Arvind told Sameer that the aide is ‘his boy’ and that Sameer should trust him and carry on with him.”
These facts, the ED said, are “relevant for mentioning to establish the abatement of his actions in relation to the excise policy scam by the leaders of AAP.”The Delhi Chief Minister rubbished the ED chargesheet, saying it has “filed 5,000 chargesheets during the tenure of the current government.”
“How many people have been sentenced? All cases filed by the ED are fake and they are used to topple governments. The ED does not file cases to eradicate corruption.They do it to buy MLAs and topple governments. There is a question on the ED chargesheet,” Kejriwal said.
A close aide of Kejriwal (arrested in the case) received kickbacks of Rs 100 crore from a group on behalf of AAP leaders, the ED alleged.“Investigation of this kickback trail has revealed that a part of the funds was used in the AAP’s election campaign during the Goa Assembly elections 2022. Cash payments of Rs 70 lakh were made to volunteers who were part of the survey teams,” the ED said.
The chargesheet added that the close aide “himself has told certain persons involved in the campaign-related work to receive payments in cash”.“Those who did advertisement/hoarding works were told to raise only part of their claims in their bill and to receive the remaining charges in cash. These part cash payments were managed through hawala channels” by a team led by a close aide of Kejriwal,” the ED said.
In lieu of these kickbacks, the ED said the “South Group” “secured uninhibited access, undue favours, gained stakes in established wholesales businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above that was allowed in the policy).”
The agency also claimed in the chargesheet that the DANICS officer, who was earlier secretary to Sisodia, recorded his statement with the ED saying he was given the GoM (group of ministers) report on the excise policy in the middle of March 2021 when he was called by his boss to the residence of Kejriwal.
“The conspiracy of GoM to give wholesale business to private entities and fix a 12 per cent margin (to get 6 per cent kickback out from the same) is clear from the statement” of the DANICS officer where he allegedly disclosed that there was neither any discussion at the GoM meetings about giving wholesale rights to private entities not providing 12 per cent profit margin,” the chargesheet said.
The excise policy of 2021-22 was scrapped in August 2022 and the Delhi Lieutenant Governor later asked the CBI to probe the alleged irregularities in the matter.
