Delhi liquor policy case: ED arrests Aurobindo Pharma director

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, who are probing the Delhi liquor scam case, have detained two businessmen from Hyderabad. The agency took custody of Aurobindo Pharma Director P Sharath Reddy and businessman Vinay Babu. The two businessmen are shifted to the ED office in Hyderabad.

It was the third detention of businessmen from Hyderabad after the CBI arrested businessman Abhishek Boinpally. Even as the ED officials did not confirm the arrest, a team of ED officials today morning picked up two businessmen Sharath Reddy and Vinay Babu from their residences and shifted to ED office in connection with the Delhi liquor scam case.

Earlier, the ED questioned Sharath Reddy on September 21, 22 and 23 in Delhi in connection with the case. The agency found that Sharath Reddy and Vinay had done transactions in connection with Delhi liquor business.

Similarly, the ED and Income Tax department officials also conduct raids on the residence of MP Gayatri Ravi at Srinagar colony and his business firms in Karimnagar. These raids are taking place in connection with the irregularities that took place in the granite business.

In September, it arrested Sameer Mahandru, managing director of a liquor manufacturing company Indospirit.

The agency early this month raided the premises of a PA of Delhi Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and later questioned him at its office in Delhi.

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR that had named Sisodia as an accused among others. The CBI had raided the premises of the deputy chief minister and some Delhi government bureaucrats after filing the case.

The excise scheme came under the scanner after the Delhi LG recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi's Excise Policy 2021-22. The LG had also suspended 11 excise officials.