Delhi Excise Policy Case: CBI Alleges K Kavitha Coerced Sharath Reddy to Pay ₹25 Crore to AAP

Delhi Excise Policy Case: CBI Alleges K Kavitha Coerced Sharath Reddy to Pay ₹25 Crore to AAP

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is requesting K Kavitha’s custody, told a special court on Friday that the BRS leader, who is an accused in the Delhi excise policy case, allegedly threatened Aurobindo Pharma’s promoter Sharath Chandra Reddy to cough up ₹25 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party in exchange for five retail zones in the national capital. She was thereafter placed in CBI custody until April 15 by the court. K Kavitha was charged by the CBI with threatening to damage Sharath Reddy’s company if he failed to reimburse the Aam Aadmi Party for purported bribes. An approver has emerged in the liquor policy case: Sharath Chandra Reddy, a co-accused under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate. Special judge Kaveri Baweja was informed by the CBI that Reddy only took involved in the liquor business in Delhi at the “insistence and assurance” of K Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, according to reports.

“K Kavitha further told Sharath Chandra Reddy that the payments of upfront money of ₹25 crores for wholesale business and ₹5 crores for each retail zone were to be made to the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi Government for getting liquor business and the same was to be paid to her associates Arun R. Pillai and Abhishek Boinpally, who would in turn coordinate with Vijay Nair, who was a representative of Arvind Kejriwal,” according to the CBI. K Kavitha was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate in March.

Days after questioning her, on Thursday, the CBI detained her. Even in the face of evidence, the agency maintained that she had not responded to its questions. According to the agency, K Kavitha’s associates, Arun R Pillai, Abhishek Boinpally, and Butchibabu Gorantla, stayed at the Hotel Oberoi in Delhi between March and May 2021 in order to add clauses that benefited them to the now-canceled policy. Reddy’s company, Aurobindo Reality and Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, allegedly paid ₹80 lakh to K Kavitha’s NGO, Telangana Jagruthi, on her guarantee of support.

According to the CBI, K Kavitha forced Sharath Chandra Reddy to sign a sale deal with her for an agricultural plot in Mahboob Nagar, Telangana, in June or July of 2021. Reddy was coerced into signing the selling agreement against his will, according to the agency. It said that Kavitha pushed him to give ₹14 crore. It is also said that she requested that Sharath Reddy give the AAP ₹25 crore, with each retail zone in Delhi receiving ₹5 crore. “However, when Sarath Chandra Reddy showed his reluctance to pay the demanded money, K Kavitha threatened Sarath Chandra Reddy to harm his business in Telangana and in Delhi under the Excise Policy,” according to the agency.

K Kavitha is charged with being a member of the South Group, which is said to have given ₹100 crore in kickbacks to the AAP in exchange for licenses under the liquor policy. Last month, the Aam Aadmi Party claimed that Reddy’s company had used electoral bonds to give the BJP ₹59.5 crore. “Reddy purchased electoral bonds worth ₹4.5 crore while the excise policy was being formulated and after his arrest, he purchased electoral bonds worth ₹55 crore and the money went to the BJP,” Atishi, the AAP leader, had said.

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was taken into custody in relation to an excise policy-related money-laundering probe. Manish Sisodia has been detained since February 2023 on similar charges. The AAP claims that no money trail has been found and that action against its leaders was part of the BJP’s political retaliation. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh brushed aside the Opposition’s allegation that agencies were misused in connection with Arvind Kejriwal’s incarceration earlier this week, questioning why the courts hadn’t given him a break in the case.