Sharat Chandra Reddy turned approver in the Liquor policy case in which Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and BRS MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla have been arrested.
Aurobindo Parma's non-executive director P Sharat Chandra Reddy was arrested in the Delhi excise policy case on 10 November 2022. (Aurobindo Pharma website)
A serving chief minister and the daughter of a former chief minister are the latest to be arrested in the infamous multi-crore Delhi liquor policy scandal.
But one of the prime accused in the same case has turned so ‘clean’ that he is enjoying the privilege of even serving Lord Venkateswara!
Hyderabad-based pharma major Aurobindo and its subsidiaries, whose director P Sharat Chandra Reddy was arrested in the liquor case, donated ₹77 crore via electoral bonds, most of which went to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A major chunk of this donation to the BJP came after his arrest in the Delhi liquor policy case. Of this ₹77 crore in electoral bonds, ₹15 crore went to Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and ₹2.5 crores to Telugu Desai Party (TDP).
According to the details uploaded on its website by the Election Commission on Thursday, 21 March, night, Aurobindo Pharma purchased 15 bonds worth ₹1 crore each on 8 April 2022 (serial numbers 9956/50/62/54/52/58/44/46/40/48/42/34/36/60/38). The BRS encashed them all four days later on 12 April.
On 5 January, 2022, Aurobindo bought electoral bonds worth ₹3 crores which were redeemed by the BJP.
Subsequently, Aurobindo purchased six more bonds (one bond of ₹1 crore and five bonds of ₹10 lakh) on 2 July 2022, and the BJP redeemed them on 12 July for ₹1.5 crore. The pharma major purchased five more bonds worth ₹1 crore on 15 November 2022 (serial numbers 12380/376/382/374/378). The biggest chunk was, however, bought a year later on 8 November 2023.
As many as 25 electoral bonds worth ₹25 crore were purchased (serial numbers 16258/280/246/248/282…), and the BJP redeemed them on 17 November.
Aurobindo’s subsidiaries – Eugia Pharma Specialities Limited purchased electoral bonds worth ₹15 crores on 8 November 2023. Another subsidiary, APL Healthcare limited, bought bonds worth ₹10 crore on 7 November 2023. All of these bonds were encashed by the BJP.
It maybe noted that Aurobindo’s Sharat Chandra Reddy donated ₹4.5 crore to BJP before his arrest in the Delhi liquor policy case. Post his arrest, Reddy donated bonds worth a whopping ₹55 crores to BJP, the ruling part at the centre.
If this is the chronology of bond purchase and encashment, take a look at the sequence of other events. On 10 November 2022, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Sharat in the Delhi liquor case and was subsequently remanded in judicial custody. The first tranche of bonds benefitting the BJP was bought five days after the arrest.
In May 2023, Sharat got bail on medical grounds, and within a month, he turned approver with the permission of a Delhi court.
It is based on the reported confessions of Sharat and another accused, Magunta Raghava Reddy (now the Lok Sabha candidate of the TDP-BJP alliance in Andhra Pradesh) that the ED is basing its charges against both Arvind Kejriwal and K Kavitha, BRS MLC and daughter of former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who was arrested on 15 March, ahead of the Delhi Chief Minister.
A Delhi court allowed Raghava Reddy to turn approver on 29 February.
For Sharat, though, it is all hunky dory — donation via bonds, turning approver, getting bail — and it did not stop there. In August 2023, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh appointed him a member of the prestigious Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Board. That he is an accused in a liquor case has not worked against him “for serving the Lord.”
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