How approvers’ info laid the ground for CM Kejriwal’s arrest
NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s name came up for the first time in the remand application filed by ED against BRS MLC K Kavitha while she was presented in the court on March 16.
The ED, while seeking custody of Kavitha, submitted that she is one of the “key conspirators and beneficiaries” of the alleged scam and conspired with top AAP leaders, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, providing them kickbacks amounting to Rs 100 crore, and in return, they received undue favours in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy.
All of this info was revealed when other accused and some alleged members of ‘South Group’ - Sarath Reddy, Raghav Magunta, and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy - turned approvers.
Magunta father-son
As per the statement submitted in a court, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy said that in March 2021, he read in a newspaper that the government was privatising the liquor trade after which he met Kejriwal on March 16, 2021.
Srinivasulu told ED that he met Kavitha on March 21, 2021 and she told him that she has spoken with Kejriwal and asked Srinivasulu to arrange Rs 50 Crore. “Since I’m involved in daily MP activities, I asked my son Raghav Magunta to deal with Ms Kavitha...later I came to know that my son had paid Rs 25 Cr to her [Kavitha’s] people,” the remand application read.
Raghav claimed that CM Kejriwal invited his father Magunta to Delhi and said that he will support him the new excise policy. “In return, he wanted sum funding for upcoming elections in Punjab and Goa. He asked for Rs 100 Cr to be given to him for the elections,” the ED’s remand application read.
Sarath Reddy
Hyderabad-based businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy was arrested by the ED in November, 2022 and turned approver in the case in June, 2023 after he was granted bail on medical grounds.
Reddy told the sleuths that he was investing in Delhi and expressed this desire to Arun Pillai (one of the key members of the south group). Pillai assured him to get it done through Vijay Nair, a close associate of Kejriwal.