The bench reduced the period of the interim bail to six days on a plea by the ED, which is probing the money-laundering aspect of the case.
The Supreme Court of India. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Supreme Court on Friday, 9 June, modified the Delhi High Court order and reduced the interim bail granted to Magunta Raghava Reddy — one of the accused in the Delhi excise policy scam — till 12 June instead of the 15 days bail granted by the high court which was to end on 22 June.
Reducing the interim bail granted to Magunta Raghava Reddy to six days, a vacation bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Rajesh Bindal noted that his ailing maternal grandmother was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Apollo Hospital at Nellore, in Andhra Pradesh.
The bench reduced the period of the interim bail to six days on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which — along with the CBI — is probing the money laundering aspect of the liquor scam.
Former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia is under judicial custody regarding the same case.
The court recorded the ED submission that after Magunta Raghava Reddy’s plea for regular bail was rejected by the special PMLA court, he sought interim bail on the grounds of his wife’s illness and subsequently he withdrew it.
Then again, he sought interim bail to take care of his ailing grandmother and was granted 15 days of bail by a vacation bench of the Delhi High Court.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, appearing for the ED, told the court that there were other relatives in Magunta Raghava Reddy’s family to take care of the ailing lady.
He said that this was a ploy on the part of Magunta Raghava Reddy to stay away from jail after his regular bail was rejected.
However, senior lawyer Amit Desai, appearing for Magunta Raghava Reddy, said that his grandmother was 83 years old and his grandfather was 89 years old, and there was none in the family — at this stage — to take care of his aligning grandmother.
Desai said Magunta Raghava Reddy be allowed to continue on interim bail till 22 June and three days have already gone by.
On 10 February, the ED arrested Raghava in connection with the Delhi liquor scam. Raghava was arrested after being questioned by the ED at its office in New Delhi
The case was registered on 17 August, 2022, against the ex-deputy chief minister of Delhi, who was in charge as excise minister of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), and 14 others for an investigation into the matter of alleged irregularities in framing and implementation of excise policy for the year 2021-22 and extending post-tender benefits to private persons.
The ED informed the court that it had questioned 51 people in connection with the case, and added that all the details of those who were questioned were mentioned in the charge sheet.
Searches were also conducted at the premises of the accused at several locations, including in Delhi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Bengaluru, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents/articles and digital records, the CBI said.
During the investigation, Manish Sisodia and a few others were arrested.
Among those in custody are Hyderabad businessmen Abhishek Boinpally and Arun Ramachandra Pillai, and Vijay Nair, the former communications in-charge of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which is in power in Delhi, who is alleged to have coordinated the whole scam.
A charge sheet was filed on 25 November, 2022, against the then-CEO of a Mumbai-based private company and six others, including the then-deputy commissioner of excise and the then-assistant commissioner of excise.
On 8 February, 2023, the CBI arrested BRS MLC K Kavitha’s ex-chartered accountant Butchibabu Gorantla for his alleged role in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy, thereby causing wrongful gain to Hyderabad-based wholesale and retail licenses and their beneficial owners under the Delhi Excise Policy for the year 2021-22.
Butchibabu is one of the close associates of Kavitha — daughter of Telangana Chief Minister and BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao — whose name has also figured in the case.
In September 2022, CBI and ED officials raided Butchibabu’s house at Aravind Nagar in Domalguda, his apartment at Sri Saikrishna Residency, and his office was also searched. Several files and documents from various companies were found.
Three persons, including Butchibabu, had turned approvers during the investigation.
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