Sources in the Enforcement Directorate have claimed that Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai filed retraction under pressure by Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC and KCR’s daughter K Kavitha in liquor policy scam case.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Mar 14, 2023 00:03 IST
File photo of Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai
By Munish Chandra Pandey: In a new development in the liquor policy scam, the Enforcement Directorate sources have claimed that Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai filed a retraction under pressure by Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC and KCR’s daughter K Kavitha.
As per the central agency, Pillai was a close associate of BRS MLC.
Arun Pillai had filed an application before the court on March 10, saying he was pressurised by the Enforcement Directorate to give a statement. Now sources in ED claimed that he was pressurised by Kavitha to file an application before the court to retract his earlier statement.
In his statement, he had told ED that Kavitha was part of meetings with Vijay Nair and had discussion over Rs 100 crore bribery. He had also told ED that he was representing Kavitha in Indospirit firm. Kavitha and Pillai were confronted on March 11 by the ED.
Arun Pillai was arrested last week following day-long questioning by ED officials in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi liquor policy.
As per the ED, Kavitha was linked to a liquor cartel from the south that paid kickbacks amounting to about Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to gain a larger share of the market in the national capital under the Delhi excise policy for 2020-21.
The ED’s money-laundering case stems from the CBI FIR, in which former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia is currently in judicial custody till March 20.
