Delhi excise case: Court sends son of MP to 10-day custody of ED

Officials aware of the matter said Raghav is the third person to be arrested by the agency this week, and the ninth person overall to be held in Delhi excise policy case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday Raghav Magunta, son of YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasula Reddy, in connection with the agency’s ongoing probe into the Delhi exice policy case. A Delhi court on Saturday remanded Magunta to 10 days in ED custody on Saturday.

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Officials aware of the matter said Raghav is the third person to be arrested by the agency this week, and the ninth person overall to be held in Delhi excise policy case. He was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Friday evening, officials said.

In its remand application, the central agency told the court that Raghav is involved in wholesale and retail liquor business which goes against the spirit of the now scapped Delhi excise policy. The agency also said that Raghav also owns shares of M/s Indospirits, a company which has been made accused in the supplementary chargesheet filed by ED, through a proxy person. ED further pointed out that M/s Indospirits was the vehicle through which recoupment of kickbacks was to happen.

Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for Raghav, opposed the application stating that a copy of grounds of arrest had not been supplied to them. He also pointed out that ED cannot have custody as the agency does not have the powers of police and as per the Code of Criminal Procedure custody can only be either judicial custody or police custody.

He further submitted that Raghav has already given his statements and has been cooperating with the investigating agencies. He also claimed that the case against Reddy is false and fabricated.

Raghav’s father has also earlier denied all allegations against him.

Special Judge (PC Act) Naresh Kumar Laka, after hearing the submissions of the parties sent, Raghav to 10 days ED custody. The court further directed that Raghav’s interrogation to be conducted under CCTV camera surveillance, and that he should be allowed to meet his advocates for half an hour, in a manner that ED officials may not be able to hear their conversations, and his family members for 15 minutes between 5pm to 6pm. The court also directed that he shall be medically examined every 24 hours

Court had earlier this week also remanded Gautam Malhotra, son of former Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Deep Malhotra, to ED custody for a period of 7 days and Rajesh Joshi, owner of Chariot Media Production Private Limited, to 4 days ED Custody.

ED has registered a case of money laundering under PMLA in relation to the predicate offences case of the (CBI) on August 22, 2022, and filed a main complaint before the Court on November 26, 2022. In the main complaint ED had alleged that Sameer Mahendru was one of the kingpins and major beneficiary of the conspiracy.

It was alleged by ED that Mahendru was not only in the payment of kickbacks but was also involved in the formation of cartel and monopoly. It was further alleged that kickbacks of around Rs. 100 crores were paid to the politicians or other public servants of the ruling party and government and some of these kickbacks are found to have been paid back or recouped to the South liquor lobby.

ED also filed a supplementary complaint, on January 6, in the case naming a total of 17 entities as accused including Sameer Mahendru, Vijay Nair, P. Sarath Chandra Reddy, Benoy Babu, Abhishek Boinpally and Amit Arora along with 11 companies.

Terming Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) communications in-charge Vijay Nair as the one who “orchestrated the entire scam”, the federal agency said Nair received advance kickbacks worth ₹100 crore from the alleged ‘South Group’, comprising Andhra Pradesh MP and YSR Congress leader Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, Telangana MLC and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Kalvakuntla Kavitha (the daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao), and businessman Sarath Reddy (the promoter of Aurobindo Group).