Accused turn ApproversThe ED, while seeking custody of Kavitha, submitted before the Rouse Avenue Court that she is one of the “key conspirators and beneficiaries” of the alleged scam and conspired with top AAP leaders, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, providing them kickbacks amounting to Rs 100 crore, receiving in return undue favours from the formulation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy 21-22. This, ED submitted, was revealed when other accused, members of ‘South Group’, Sarath Reddy, Raghav Magunta, and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy turned approvers. According to a submission in court, Andhra Congress MP, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy said that in March 2021, he read in a Delhi newspaper that the government was privatising liquor trade, pursuant to which, he met CM Arvind Kejriwal on March 16, 2021.Srinivasulu told ED that he had met Kavitha on March 21 that year who told him she had spoken to Kejriwal, asking Srinivasulu to arrange Rs 50 crore. “Since I’m occupied with my duties as MP, I asked my son Raghav Magunta to deal with Kavitha… later I came to know that my son had paid Rs 25 crore to her (Kavitha’s) associate,” the remand application read. Raghav Magunta’s statement was also recorded by the ED under Section 50 of PMLA in July 2023, where he claimed that Kejriwal invited his father Srinivasulu Reddy to Delhi and said he will support him in the formulation of the new excise policy. “In return, he wanted a sum of money to fund the upcoming elections in Punjab and Goa. He asked for Rs 100 crore for the elections,” the ED’s remand application read.Why an Approver bought electoral bonds?Hyderabad-based businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy was arrested by the ED in November 2022. He turned approver in the case in June 2023, after he was granted bail on medical grounds. The ED didn’t oppose the bail. In his statement to the sleuths in April 2023, Reddy said he was wanted to invest in Delhi and expressed this desire to Arun Pillai (a key member of the South Group). Pillai directed him to Vijay Nair, AAP’s erstwhile communications in-charge and close associate of Kejriwal. As per the ED, Nair, who didn’t hold any position in the Delhi excise Department, “acted as a middleman on behalf of top leaders (specifically Arvind Kejriwal) for getting kickbacks from various stakeholders.”Interestingly, after the Election Commission (ECI) released the unique numbers associated with each electoral bond, pursuant to the SBI (State Bank of India) disclosure following a dressing-down from the Supreme Court, it has come to the fore that the firm of accused Sarath Reddy, Aurobindo Pharma, donated electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore to the BJP in November 2022, only five days after he was arrested. A year later, in November 2023, the same firm where Sarath Reddy was a director, donated Rs 25 crore to the saffron camp. Aurobindo Pharma is also connected to two other companies, who also, on the same day, separately donated Rs 10 and Rs 15 crore to the BJP via electoral bonds. The data on electoral bonds also indicate that 66% of these bonds were directed towards the BJP. 29% was cashed by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi while the remaining went to the Telugu Desam Party.
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