VIJAYAWADA: Excise and Prohibition officials produced Addepalli Janardhan Rao, the prime accused in the sensational Mulakalacheruvu spurious liquor case, in the Vijayawada court on Saturday.
Rao was arrested at Gannavaram airport on Friday evening, soon after his arrival from South Africa.
After questioning him for nearly 10 hours, the Excise officials produced Rao before the magistrate, and he was remanded to 7 days judicial custody.
As per the remand report, Rao, a resident of Ibrahimpatnam, initially ran a grocery business before starting ANR Restaurant and Bar.
The bar was relocated following the Supreme Court directive on liquor outlets, and the National Highways rules, leading to severe losses.
To overcome the losses, Rao allegedly entered into the illicit liquor business. He rented a room at Nizampet in Hyderabad, and procured cheap liquor, which he repackaged it into 35-litre plastic cans labelled as phenyl to evade police checks during transportation.
The cheap liquor consignments were sent to Ibrahimpatnam via RTC courier, where his aide Haji (A5) rebottled it in one litre bottles, and sold.
In 2022, Rao partnered with six others, including Tungala Sudhakar, Chintamaneni Krishnamohan, Mahankali Poornachandra Rao, Borra Kiran, Subha Bharati (his sister), and Sharif, to open a bar in Hyderabad named E-7, from where they continued the illicit liquor business.
Accused planned to set up a distillery
In 2023, Rao met Balaji (A3) in Goa, who claimed experience in a distillery, and offered to supply spirit, caps, caramel, essence, and other materials to manufacture liquor locally. By April 2023, Rao began producing spurious liquor at ANR Bar, using supplies from Balaji and fake labels printed in Hyderabad by Srinivas and Ramesh, and sent through Ravi (A4).
According to the remand report, “The accused had produced spurious liquor under brand names like Kerala Malt Whisky, Manjeera Whisky, Old Admiral Brandy, Classic Blue Whisky. Rao paid Balaji `20 lakh in advance for the supply of first consignment. He charged `350-450 per litre, and when repackaged into 180 ml bottles, Rao earned `35 to `240 profit per bottle.”
During the general elections, Rao supported his friend Jayachandra Reddy, who contested from Thamballapalle Assembly constituency on TDP ticket. Later, under the new liquor policy, Rao’s associates Surendra Naidu and Rajesh set up wine shops. Rao befriended them through Palagiri Siddha of Mulakalacheruvu. Due to their political background, and lack of business experience, they incurred losses, and asked Rao to manage their liquor shops at Mulakalacheruvu and Chandrayunipalli.
Applying the same formula, Rao started manufacturing spurious liquor in Mulakalacheruvu. Simultaneously, he also resumed production of illicit liquor at his ANR Bar in Ibrahimpatnam. Empty PET bottles were supplied by Srinivasa Reddy (A11), and the spurious liquor was sold through Srinivasa Wines managed by Kalyan (A12). Bottling, label fixing, and packing work were done by Syed Haji, Kattiraju (A6), Badal Dasu (A7), Pradeep Dasu (A8), Mithun Dasu (A9), and Anta Das (A10), the remand report stated.
Shockingly, Rao went to Rwanda in Africa to meet Jayachandra Reddy, and explore opportunities for setting up a distillery, the Excise officials revealed.
