NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Enforcement on Saturday arrested Raghav Magunta - son of YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy – one of the persons involved in the generation of kickback, out of the ‘tweaked’ Delhi Excise Policy that favoured ‘liquor lobbies’ and caused huge losses to the Delhi exchequer. The kickbacks were allegedly laundered and distributed subsequently amongst middlemen, government and politicians.
According to ED sources, the agency would seek custodial remand on Raghav, who is the owner of the Balaji Group and has been one of the key associates of the South Group liquor lobby which benefited from the tweaked Delhi Excise policy that caused huge losses to the Delhi Government. The South lobby had generated Rs 100 crore of kickback which was received by another accused Vijay Nair on behalf of the AAP.
The ED had earlier this week arrested two persons - Rajesh Joshi and Gautam Malhotra for their alleged involvement in the laundering of the kickbacks generated in Delhi Excise scam. Joshi, the owner of Chariot Productions Media firm that also handled campaigns for AAP, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly laundering the kickback money received from Delhi liquor scam. Joshi used the liquor kickback to fund AAP’s elections campaign in Goa, the CBI alleged. Joshi, granted ED remand till February 13 is currently being interrogated by the agency in custody.
Gautam Malhotra, a Punjab-based businessman and son of a former SAD MLA Deepak Malhotra, was also arrested on Tuesday night in connection with the money laundering investigation linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case.
Gautam the ED alleged was a close aide of F&B business entrepreneurs and an accused turned approver in the excise case, Dinesh Arora. Gautam associated with the Oasis group was remanded in ED custody for interrogation till February 15 for further investigations.