PNS|Amaravati
The Delhi High Court granted a four-week bail on health grounds to Magunta Raghava Reddy (Raghu), one of the main accused in the Delhi liquor scam.
Interestingly, the ED, which had previously strongly opposed Raghava’s bail petition, did not object to his bail this time. The Delhi High Court requested Raghava to cooperate with the ED authorities by appearing before them whenever required for questioning.
As a condition of the bail, Raghava has been instructed not to leave Chennai during this period and to make himself available to the ED for questioning either in Chennai or Delhi. The bail was granted to Raghava almost 50 days after the Delhi court released P Sarath Chandra Reddy, director of Aurobindo Group and a relative of YSRCP general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy, after he turned approver in the case. In April, another accused in the case, Gorantla Buchi Babu, former chartered accountant of Bharat Rashtra Samithi legislator and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha, also turned approver and received bail.
On February 10, the ED authorities arrested Magunta Raghava in connection with the money laundering investigation into the alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case.
The ED also implicated Kavitha in the remand report of Raghava, who is a key player among the South Group, along with Arun Pillai, Abhishek Boinpally, and G Buchi Babu.
Raghava is the owner of liquor manufacturing units under the name of Enrica Enterprises Pvt Ltd located in Chennai. He directly controlled two retail zones in the name of Magunta Agro Farms Pvt Ltd, which is in violation of the Excise Policy 2021-22.
The ED alleged that Raghava, through his proxy Prem Rahul Manduri, also held a 32.5 percent stake in Indo Spirits, which held an L1 wholesale license. The ED further alleged that Raghava had paid Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders.
