NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Enforcement on Saturday was granted 10-day custodial remand of Raghav Magunta – son of YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy – over his alleged involvement 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 officials and politicians.
Magunta was arrested and produced before Special Judge MK Nagpal at the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi by ED on Saturday. The ED sought Raghav's custody in order to interrogate him regarding kickbacks to the tune of over Rs 100 crore which were allegedly laundered and distributed in the Delhi Excise scam.
The court allowed the agency to interrogate Magunta for 10 days during which he will also be confronted with other accused already in custody.
According to ED sources, Raghav Magunta, who is the owner of the Balaji Group, 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, the ED alleged, had generated Rs 100 crore of kickback which was laundered and distributed amongst middlemen, government officials and politicians.
Even in the second chargesheet filed in January, the ED had alleged that Vijay Nair, one of the prime accused, had received the kickback money on behalf of leaders of AAP to the tune of Rs 100 crore from the South Group, comprising YSRC MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, Sharath Reddy and M Kavitha.
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 the 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. The CBI alleged that Joshi used the liquor kickback to fund AAP’s elections campaign in Goa. Joshi was remanded till February 13 and 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.