Delhi liquor scam: KCR's daughter Kavitha has stake in Indo Spirits, says ED

NEW DELHI:  The Enforcement Directorate has made a sensational accusation that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha and a partner together hold about 65% stake in liquor company Indo Spirits, which is allegedly involved in the Delhi liquor scam. The agency, in a chargesheet filed last month, said Kavitha holds the stake through proxies who have been identified and questioned.
The ED chargesheet was filed in the Special Court of judge M K Nagpal, who took cognisance of it on Tuesday and listed the case for hearing on January 5.

The ED chargesheet gives a detailed description of how the scam unfolded. It says “one of the crucial pieces of evidence of this scam and conspiracy is the circumstances under which the partnership of India Spirits was formed. As revealed by Sameer (Mahendru) in his statement dated November 12, he was introduced to Arun Pillai by Vijay Nair as part of a group which has deep pockets and are friends of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal… they sought a stake in Sameer’s Delhi business.

Sameer did not agree to this partnership condition as it meant him sharing his profit for no significant investments from these persons. Vijay Nair then told Sameer that if he takes this deal, Vijay will ensure that they get Pernod (Ricard)’s business. ...Sameer agreed hereby to give stakes of 65% to these persons. During the course of his interaction with these persons, Sameer had become aware of MSR (Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy) and K Kavitha being the actual partners in Indo Spirits, who were represented by their fronts Prem Rahul and Arun Pillai.”

As for Arun Pillai, he “revealed that during his interaction with Sameer Mahendru it was made clear to him that the ultimate control of the 65% stakes in his business was with MSR and K Kavitha. Arun Pillai has confirmed that he has arranged facetime calls with Kavitha and Sameer Mahendru as well. He had also arranged a meeting of Sameer Mahendru and Kavitha at her residence at Hyderabad, wherein she took general updates of Indo Spirits business from Sameer Mahendru.”

The ED said that Dinesh Arora in his statement dated 1.10.2022 revealed that he coordinated transfer of Rs 30-31 crore kickbacks from the South Group, of which Kavitha is allegedly a part, from Hyderabad to Delhi for Vijay Nair.