Excise Policy scam: South Group paid kickbacks in advance, says ED charge sheet
The ED alleged that Nair, on behalf of leaders of the AAP, received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group, which, for convenience, it has named the 'South Group'.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its charge sheet filed in the Delhi Excise Policy ‘scam’, has alleged that one of the accused Vijay Nair arm-twisted few wholesalers to surrender their licenses and then coerced manufacturers surrendered through that license to choose wholesalers of his choice to direct profit margins to those persons.
The ED alleged that Nair, on behalf of leaders of the AAP, received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group, which, for convenience, it has named the ‘South Group’.
Its prominent members are allegedly Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, Raghav Magunta, Sarath Reddy, and K. Kavitha, the daughter of the Telangana Chief Minister.
“These kickbacks were paid in advance to the AAP leaders through Vijay Nair by the South Group as a part of agreement between the South Group and the AAP leaders. Against the kickbacks paid, the South Group secured uninhibited access, undue favours, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy). To recover the kickbacks given by the South Group, partners of the South Group were given 65 per cent stakes in Indo Spirits in collusion with the accused Sameer Mahandru. This partnership formation was directed by Nair on the assurance of giving the wholesale business of Pernod Ricard to Indo Spirits of Mahendru,” the ED has said in the charge sheet.
