Ashish Ranjan
Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, who is under investigation for Delhi excise policy-related irregularities, did not appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday, alleging the illness of a family member, according to sources familiar with the situation.The agency will now issue him a new date-related summons.
The Lok Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh’s Ongole constituency has been asked to appear before the excise policy investigation team in Delhi at 11 a.m. on Saturday, as the agency wishes to confront him with another accused, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who represented the alleged South Group, as well as other case-related facts.
On February 11, his son Raghav Magunta was detained by the ED.According to court documents seen by HT, ED alleges that Raghav Magunta, through his father Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, was instrumental in forming a partnership with other businessmen and politicians, now known as an alleged “South Group”, to enter the Delhi liquor business.
Citing statements by various individuals, ED asserts that Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy or MSR himself convened a meeting with his associates “during which he expressed his eagerness to engage in liquor trade under Delhi’s new excise policy and that Raghav would oversee all liquor trade operations in Delhi.”
“MSR disclosed that he had met with Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, to learn more about Delhi’s excise policy, and that Kejriwal had welcomed his entry into the Delhi liquor trade; that MSR desired a business base in the Delhi liquor industry, and the Delhi CM had welcomed him,” ED stated in one of its remand notes.
According to the ED, the South Group consists of MSR, his son Raghav Magunta, Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Group), K Kavitha (Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC and daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao), and Sameer Mahendru (a merchant from Delhi). Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai, and Butchibabu Gorantla represented it in meetings with Aam Aadmi Party communications chief Vijay Nair and other liquor merchants.
Friday, the ED informed a Delhi court that former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was involved in the large-scale destruction of digital evidence to impede the investigation into the Delhi excise policy case and had altered and destroyed 14 phones.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) apprehended Sisodia on February 26. He is presently in the custody of the ED.
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ED asserts that Sisodia altered or obliterated the majority of the phones immediately after the Delhi lieutenant governor’s (LG) complaint to the CBI, which was also reported by the media on July 22 of last year.
