CBI detains KCR’s daughter’s aide in the Delhi Excise Policy case
In connection with the excise policy issue, the Central Bureau of Investigation had summoned the CA, Butchibabu Gorantla, to Delhi for questioning. He was detained on Tuesday night because, according to authorities, he was uncooperative and his answers were determined to be evasive.
In connection with alleged anomalies in the Delhi excise policy, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has detained former chartered accountant of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
For his alleged role in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy, which resulted in wrongful gain for Hyderabad-based wholesale and retail licensees and their beneficial owners under the Delhi Excise Policy for the years 2021–2022, the CBI has detained Hyderabad-based CA Butchibabu Gorantla as part of the ongoing investigation into the Delhi Excise Policy case. Today, he will be brought before the court, according to CBI spokesperson R. C. Joshi.
According to officials, Butchibabu, who previously collaborated with Kavitha, was invited to the CBI’s Delhi headquarters to participate in the probe. He “entered the probe on Tuesday,” an official added, “but he was not helping with the investigation.”
Prior to this, the CBI had questioned Kavitha at her home in Hyderabad and had her statement recorded.
YSRCP MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, Raghav Magunta, Sarath Reddy, and Kavitha were allegedly included in the “South Group,” which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently accused of receiving kickbacks totaling Rs 100 crore from in its supplementary prosecution complaint over alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case. The claims have been refuted by Kavitha.
According to the CBI’s chargesheet regarding irregularities in the excise policy case, hawala channel transactions worth Rs 20–30 crore were allegedly made to Nair by liquor producers in South India in order to take advantage of his membership in the Delhi government to further the illegal goal of cartelization.
In April 2020, when the excise policy was still being developed, the accused allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy to obtain “undue benefits by circumventing provisions of the policy and to achieve the illegal objective of cartelization between liquor manufacturers, wholesalers, and retail vendors.”
Businessman Abhishek Boinpally allegedly “arranged a huge amount of around Rs 20-30 crore at the behest of some liquor manufacturers belonging to South (India) and this amount was transferred or transmitted by him through accused Dinesh Arora to AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair and his associates during the period between July and September 2021 in cash using hawala channels,” according to the allegation.
According to the CBI chargesheet, Nair received an advance payment “paid by liquor makers from the South” for “using his influence and position within the Delhi government to further the above criminal purpose of cartelization between various excise policy components.”
The chargesheet also states that “profit margin for wholesalers was intentionally kept as high as 12% of the landed cost of IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) and 6% share out of this 12% profit margin was to be paid or returned to Boinpally, who is stated to be a frontman of liquor manufacturers from South, against the above illegal amount of Rs 20-30 crore earlier sent by him to Nair through hawala channels.”