NEW DELHI: The CBI is all set to expand the ambit of its Delhi liquor policy probe by examining those of Telangana and West Bengal as well. Both states implemented liquor policies that are absolutely identical to the ones in Delhi and Punjab.
While probing the Delhi liquor policy scam, the CBI found close linkages between the perpetrators in Delhi and the ruling establishments in Telangana and West Bengal. Besides wholesalers, middlemen, politicians and bureaucrats, the agency is also looking into the role of French spirits major Pernod Ricard in the drafting of the liquor policies of these two states.
This paper was the first to write about the CBI’s probe into the role of Pernod Ricard in the framing of the now-withdrawn excise policy in Delhi. Pernod Ricard is the major beneficiary of the new excise policies in Delhi, Punjab, Telangana and West Bengal with its products capturing most of the market.
According to the CBI, Manoj Rai, who has been named in its Delhi chargesheet, worked as Pernod Ricard’s front man. He attended government meetings and was instrumental in framing a policy beneficial to the company.
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Following the CBI probe, the ED on Thursday arrested Pernod Ricard’s general manager in charge of the Delhi region, Binoy Babu, and Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma’s whole-time director and promoter, P Sarath Chandra Reddy.
Binoy was found to be in possession of documents related to the Delhi liquor policy. The ED accused Binoy of abetting to cartelisation and said he was instrumental in deciding who would get wholesale licenses in Delhi. The ED accused Reddy of controlling nine of the 32 wholesale zones through a web of firms in violation of the excise policy, which mandated that no single entity could control more than two zones.