HYDERABAD: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) interrogated liquor scam accused Abhishek Rao Boinpally regarding his links with other businessmen and familiar personalities from Hyderabad on the fourth day of his custody on Friday. The probe unit found some names in his contact list and retrieved his WhatsApp messages with others at the time of the framing of the Delhi government’s excise policy.
Sources said that CBI questioned Abhishek about his chats to which he replied that he doesn’t remember about the purpose of those chats. Officials asked Abhishek about his association with his co-accused Arun Ramachandran Pillai and on what purpose the Robin Distribution base was started in Delhi. Abhishek responded to the question that one of his friends who is also in liquor business introduced him to Arun Ramachandran Pillai in 2017 at a function in Bengaluru.
The sleuths asked him who shared the information and established links with mediators in Delhi Excise Policy and liquor tenders. Sources said that Arun Ramachandran Pillai, Vijay Nair and Arjun Pandey contacted him to invest in liquor marts. They also inquired who gave him contacts and mediated with the officials of the Delhi Excise department. Agency officials sought to know the purpose of a meeting he held in Hyderabad with liquor traders and who all attended it.
MLA’s son-in-law raided
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches in connection with the liquor scam across the country on Friday. The sleuths also conducted searches in Hyderabad during which premises associated with the son-in-law of an Telangana MLA, a popular former Union Minister’s relative and another person, who is the director of a firm owned by a politician.