The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Tuesday, February 28th, made an allegation against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that the party’s leaders received kickbacks in the amount of about Rs 100 crore from a certain group of individuals, identified as ‘South Group’.
In two prosecution complaints (tantamount to chargesheets), the ED claimed that the members of the putative group paid bribes to tweak the now-scrapped excise policy.
Pursuant to the ED’s prosecution complaint, Vijay Nair, the communication in charge of the AAP, “received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group, for convenience, we may call it the South Group.”
Furthermore, the ED also alleged that Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party(YSRCP), and Kalvakuntla Kavitha, Telangana MLC and daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, are prominent members of the South Group.
As per the ED, the South Group paid the kickbacks in order to attain unrestrained access and undue favours in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones.
The ED also alleged that the South Group was given 65 per cent stakes in IndoSpirits, the company which controlled the liquor distribution in Delhi, in collusion with accused Sameer Mahendru, managing director of IndoSpirits and the formation of this partnership was directed by Nair.
As per the ED, the government allegedly lost revenue in terms of about Rs 581 crore and this loss to the government exchequer actually got illegally diverted into ostentatious profits to the accused wholesalers.
