Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday submitted Hindi in the Rouse Avenue Court following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 21 March. Kejriwal said his name has appeared in four statements in the case. People who mentioned Delhi CM in their statements in the Excise Policy case are- C Arvind (former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s secretary); Magunta Srinivas Reddy (MP from Andhra Pradesh); Reddy’s son Raghav Magunta, and Sarath Reddy.
What Arvind Kejriwal said?
Giving details of the statement in which his name appears, Kejriwal said, “Magunta Srinivas Reddy came to my office at 4.30 pm on March 16, 2021. He had sent an e-mail to my office that he is an MP and wanted to meet me. My office gave him an appointment to meet me after 10 days. He came over and said I want to open my family’s charitable trust in Delhi. I told him that land does not come under us, it comes under the Lieutenant Governor (LG)”.
Magunta Srinivas Reddy is an MP from (Andhra Pradesh chief minister) Jagan Mohan Reddy’s party (YSRCP). CM Arvind Kejriwal asked Magunta Srinivas Reddy to give him the letter which he will forward to the lieutenant governor.
He said on September 16, 2022, Reddy’s house was raided and the ED asked him whether he had met Kejriwal. When Reddy replied in the affirmative, saying his meeting was about seeking land for his family’s trust, the ED was “not happy” and later the agency arrested his son in February 2023.
“When the son remains arrested for five months, the father changes his statement. He changed his statement on July 16, 2023, and his son was released on July 18. Mission accomplished. That means the only mission of the ED was to get me trapped,” Kejriwal said.
The Delhi chief minister further said Magunta Srinivas Reddy gave three statements to the agency but only one was considered.
Further Kejriwal said even Raghav Magunta, son of Magunta Srinivas Reddy gave seven statements to ED of which six were not against “Kejriwal”. “As soon as he gave the seventh statement against him, Magunta was released from the jail,” Kejriwal said.
On Sarath Reddy, Kejriwal told court, “After he was kept in jail for six months, he (Sarath Chandra Reddy) finally succumbed and gave another statement on April 25, 2023.The only thing he said against me was that he had gone to meet the CM along with Vijay Nair”.
Who are Magunta Srinivas Reddy and Raghav Magunta and their connection with Delhi excise policy?
Currently, the four-time MP Magunta Srinivas Reddy and his son are busy campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh with MS Reddy is expected to get a Lok Sabha ticket from Ongole’s seat.
In Delhi’s excise policy case, the ED alleged that the father-son duo is part of the “South Group” whose members received undue benefits under the liquor policy designed by the AAP government in Delhi.
MS Reddy’s name first appeared in September 2022 and ED began a raid at his office and premises in New Delhi, Nellore, and Chennai. However, he was never made an accused in the case.
And, in February 2023, ED arrested Raghave on money laundering charges. Kejriwal told Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday that MS Reddy changed previous statements to the ED following Raghav’s arrest.
The father-son duo joined the N Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP this year on 28 February. A former Congressman, MS Reddy had quit the party before the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and joined the TDP. However, after the loss in the 2014 general election, MS Reddy joined the YSR Congress Party and won from Ongole in 2019. After five years with YSR Congress, MS Reddy has returned to TDP this year.
The Indian Express report, citing sources said that the excise case was also behind the father-son duo quitting the YSRCP because the party did not back them after Raghava’s arrest.
The Magunta family owns Balaji Distilleries and two other companies in Andhra Pradesh and has been in the liquor business for over seven decades.
Who is Sarath Reddy and his connection with Delhi liquor policy case?
Sarath Reddy is the director of Aurobindo Pharma. According to the AAP supremo and Delhi CM, Sarath Reddy donated ₹50 crore to the BJP after ED’s arrest. The anti-money laundering agency had arrested Reddy in November 2022. In 2023, the Delhi court allowed the businessman to turn approver in the alleged excise policy scam and granted him a pardon in the case. Kejriwal asserted that Sarath Reddy was coerced into paying the BJP a staggering ₹55 crore as protection money.
