Excise policy case: ED grills Kavitha's frontman Arun Pillai in custody

HYDERABAD: While Bharat Rasthra Samithi MLC Kalvakunta Kavitha has been summoned, the Enforcement Directorate has grilled her frontman Arun Ramchandra Pillai on Thursday in their custody.

ED grilled Arun regarding specific transactions involving Kavitha. He had already confessed to ED that the investment he is holding in the tainted liquor company Indospirits is on behalf of Kavitha.
ED will be confronting Arun Pillai with Kavitha on March 11.
ED, in its prosecution complaint (chargesheet), said that Kavitha was one of the key persons in the ‘South Group’ lobby which alleged to have bribed the Aam Admi Party government in Delhi to fund elections. The South Group paid kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair in lieu of favours to ministers and officials of AAP government, ED had alleged.
ED also alleged that the accused formed a cartel of retailer-wholesaler-manufacturer comprising Kavitha, Arun Pillai, YSRC Ongole MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, his son Raghava Magunta, P Sarath Chandra Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma, Hyderabad businessman Abhishek Boinpally and Kavitha’s former CA Butchi Babu Gorantla. “They were collectively called as South Group, as named by another accused Dinesh Arora in his statements,” it said.
The investigating agency also mentioned about the accused attending several meetings, including one in September 2021 at a star hotel and another meeting at a different star hotel. “A few days after this dinner, Arun Pillai made another accused Sameer Mahendru (Indospirit MD) speak to Kavitha on Face-Time through his phone wherein she congratulated the latter for the Delhi business. She said she is very happy that they are partners,” ED said.
It further said: “Sameer met Kavitha in early 2022 at her Hyderabad house. In this meeting, Sameer, Sarath Chandra, Arun Pillai, Abhishek, Kavitha and her husband Anil were present. In the meeting, Kavitha said to Sameer that Arun Pillai is like a family to her and doing business with him is doing business with Kavitha and that they will take this relationship to a larger scale in multiple states and expand majorly.”
One V Srinivas Rao, a witness in the case in his statement to ED, is believed to have said that he had given funds to the tune of Rs 1 crore to Arun Pillai.