A chargesheet filed by Andhra Pradesh police relating to ₹3,500 crore alleged liquor scam in a local court has named former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as the beneficiary of kickbacks of ₹50-60 crore per month. The chargesheet running into 305 pages filed on Saturday, however, refrained from naming Jagan as accused. The court has not yet taken cognizance of the chargesheet.
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Police have arrested YSR Congress Party Lok Sabha MP PV Midhun Reddy in connection with the alleged liquor scam. The arrest was made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the case, questioned Midhun Reddy for several hours.
"Amounts that were collected were then passed on to Kesireddy Rajasekhar Reddy(A-1). Money would then be passed on by Rajasekhar Reddy to Vijay Sai Reddy (A-5), Mithun Reddy (A-4), Balaji (A-33) who would deposit it into former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's account. Average collection used to be ₹50-60 crore a month," chargesheet stated while adding that it was supported by a witness.
The chargesheet claimed that Rajasekhar Reddy, "the mastermind and co-conspirator" of the whole ₹3,500 crore liquor scam, had brought about excise policy manipulation apart from playing a key role in replacing automated OFS (order for supply) with manual system; to have installed loyalists in APSBCL (Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited). He purportedly established shell distilleries and passed on "kickbacks" to Jagan via another accused Balaji Govindappa, the chargesheet claimed further.
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Rajasekhar Reddy disbursed up to ₹250-300 crore cash for elections on behalf of YSRCP Party in collaboration with accused Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy (ex-MLA) and was also tasked with money laundering through more than 30 shell companies. The money was invested to purchase land, gold, luxury properties in Dubai and Africa.
The police claimed that the prime accused introduced the new liquor during the erstwhile YSRCP regime with the underlying motive of gaining complete control over the supply and sale of liquor, thus to realise their overall objective of generating commissions / kickbacks between the years 2019 until 2024.
"The Accused orchestrated the change in excise policy and also its modalities, so that they would get big kickbacks, most part of such kickbacks was received in cash, gold bullion etc," the chargesheet stated. During the course of investigation it was found that the accused specifically withheld OFS approvals to brands/distilleries who did not comply with the kickback demands.
Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the suspected liquor scam on Saturday arrested YSRCP Lok Sabha member PV Midhun Reddy in the case after questioning him for several hours. In May, the Enforcement Directorate also registered a money laundering case to examine the suspected liquor scam.
The federal investigation agency has submitted an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under PMLA sections to investigate suspected misappropriations in the sale of liquor in the state.
A line of YSRCP leaders have criticised the arrest of Midhun Reddy, terming it as a clear case of 'political vendetta' on the part of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
In a statement by YSRCP, former ministers Botcha Satyanarayana, Perni Venkatramaiah (Nani), Ambati Rambabu, Merugu Nagarjuna, and the party general secretary G Srikanth Reddy had raised serious allegations regarding the misuse of power to target opposition leaders.
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