Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday in the Delhi Excise Policy case. A few hours before this, the election bond information was released by the Election Commission, and after the arrest of the director of his organization in the same case, it became known that Aurobindo Pharma had donated Rs 30 crore election bond to the BJP.
A few days after the ED arrested P Sarath Chandra Reddy, an accused in the Delhi Excise Policy case, in 2022, Reddy donated around five crore rupees in election bonds to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On November 21, 2022, the BJP has encashed this five crore rupees bond.
After that, in June 2023, Sarath Chandra Reddy was the approver in this case, and in November 2023, the information that Aurobindo Pharma donated 25 crore rupees to BJP has now been revealed. It has been revealed that in total, BJP has received Rs 30 crore in donations in this case.
Hyderabad-based businessman P Sarath Chandra Reddy is one of the directors of Aurobindo Pharma Limited, founded by his father PV Ram Prasad Reddy. On November 10, 2022, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Sharath Chandra Reddy in the Delhi Excise Policy case. His firm Aurobindo Pharma bought a bond worth Rs 5 crore on November 15, which was given to the BJP.
Together, Aurobindo Pharma bought Rs 52 crore worth of election bonds, of which Rs 34.5 crore was given to the BJP. Aurobindo Pharma donated Rs 15 crore to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Rs 2.5 crore to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) before Sarath Reddy was arrested by ED officials.
In 2021-22, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi government implemented a new excise policy for a few months. The ED alleged that Sharath played a role in approving the liquor licensing process in Delhi then. Sarath and Kavitha are among several persons from Telugu states referred to by the ED as the ‘Dakshina Grupa’ (South Group).
The Enforcement Directorate alleged that persons belonging to the Dakshina group had given around Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party through party in-charge Vijay Nair. This amount was given to control the liquor business in Delhi. The ED alleged that AAP used the same amount in the 2022 Goa assembly elections.
Bharat Rashtra Samiti MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, was arrested by the ED in the Delhi Excise Policy case on March 15. Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia has been in jail since February 2023 in the same case.
