To control the liquor business in Delhi, K Kavitha has paid a Rs 100 crore bribe to Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP.
K. Kavitha, a member of Bharat Rashtra Samithi and the daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, is said to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Delhi Liquor Scam. The other two beneficiaries are said to be Aurobindo Pharma’s Sharat Chandra Reddy and Lok Sabha MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy. This is officially alleged by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its charge sheet.
According to the investigations done and the statements recorded by various persons involved in the scam, the ED alleged in its charge sheet that the “South Group” involving the three persons mentioned above, paid kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to Aam Aadmi Party, to gain control over the liquor business in Delhi.
The entire conspiracy was done among liquor businessmen Sameer Mahendru, K Kavitha and the AAP’s Vijay Nair. Sameer was actually approached by Arun Pillai.
Through the kickbacks, the South Group bagged the wholesale trade as well as several retail zones. According to the ED, Kavitha holds 65 per cent along with the Magenta family and that through her proxy Arun Pillai in Indospirit. This made at least Rs 195 crore as its profit by selling 14 crore bottles in retail. This is in complete sharp contrast to just Rs 21000 profit which was made by another wholesaler Lake Forest who even paid a licence fee of Rs 5 crore.
Vijay Arora is said to be involved in persuading Pernod Ricord to make Indospirit their wholesaler for Delhi. Record is one of the biggest liquor manufacturers in the country. The 12 per cent profit acquired on sales was to be shared equally among them, as per the deal made between the South Group and the AAP.
The Charge Sheet
The bribe of Rs 100 crore, was given in advance to Vijay Nair so that he may facilitate the business for Indospirit in Delhi.
The charge sheet says that Kavitha was in constant touch with her partners through different means. She either met them directly in star hotels in Delhi or at her residence in Hyderabad. She also kept in touch with them through FaceTime calls. To erase the evidence Kavitha has destroyed about a dozen mobile phones too.
Arun Pillai is alleged by ED to be the Benami of Kavitha in Indospirit. He also accepted that he had been representing Kavitha in Indospirit. He revealed in his statement that Kavitha and Vijay Nair used to meet in The Oberoi Maidens. They discussed recovering kickbacks that were paid to AAP.
Sameer Mahendru who is another partner in Indospirit also gave support to Pillai’s statement.
Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Aam Aadmi Party’s MP Sanjay Singh are also named in the report by the investigating agency.
