Hyderabad: BRS MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla and the ‘South Group’ gave kickbacks to AAP’s communications in charge Vijay Nair on behalf of the AAP leadership to the tune of Rs 100 crore, the 400-page chargesheet filed by the agency on Thursday said.
ED said that Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally conspired with Dinesh Arora, an aide to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, to assist in the movement of the said money.
“Sh Vijay Nair, on behalf of leaders of AAP has received kickbacks to the tune of Rs. 100 Cr from a group, for convenience, we may call it the South Group (as termed in the statements of various persons recorded during the investigation), whose prominent persons are Sh Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, Sh Raghav Magunta, Sh Sarath Reddy and Ms K Kavitha. The South Group was represented by Sh Abhishek Boinpally, Sh Arun Pillai and Sh Buchi Babu. Sh Abhishek Boinpalli facilitated the transfer of Rs. 100 Cr kickback in connivance and conspiracy with Sh Vijay Nair and his associate Sh Dinesh Arora,” the ED chargesheet read.
The Enforcement Directorate also said that the Aam Aadmi Party used money from the alleged Delhi liquor scam to campaign in Goa. “Investigation of the trail of this kickback so far has revealed that part of these funds were used in the election campaign of the AAP,” said the ED in the chargesheet filed in the case.
Cash payments to the tune of Rs 70 lakh were made to volunteers of the survey teams, the agency has alleged.
The ED chargesheet also alleged that Vijay Nair had arranged a FaceTime video call from his phone between Sameer Mahendru, chief of Indospirits, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“Vijay is my boy, you should trust him and carry on with him,” Kejriwal had allegedly told Sameer Mahendru, the Enforcement Directorate has said in the chargesheet.
When asked about the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kejriwal apparently said, “The Enforcement Directorate must have filed 5,000 cases. The ED is meant to topple governments and buy and sell MLAs.”
He also allegedly called the chargesheet a ‘complete fiction’.
The liquor scheme came under examination after Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena recommended a CBI investigation into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi’s Excise Policy 2021-22.
The Delhi Excise Policy, which came into effect from November 17, 2021 was pulled down by the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government in July 2022 following a CBI probe into its execution. The ED is probing the money trail in the alleged scam.
