Delhi liquor scam: BRS MLC Kavitha’s husband Dr Anil Kumar figures in ED’s 3rd supplementary chargesheet

Anil Kumar accompanied Kavitha when she came to the ED office to attend the questioning in New Delhi.

Also Read: Delhi liquor scam: BRS MLC K Kavitha’s ex-CA turns approver

Buying of property for Kavitha and Anil

In his statement on 28 March, Kavitha’s former chartered accountant Butchibabu Gorantla, who later became an approver in the case, revealed that he bought property from Phoenix Real Estate Group’s former COO Srihari in the name of Engrowth Capital.

Anil Kumar was also a partner in this firm that bought the land at a much-discounted rate from the market rate, according to the ED.

It was alleged that Kavitha bought another property of 25,000 sq ft from Srihari and Butchibabu coordinated the paperwork based on her directions.

The market value of the property was ₹1760/sq ft, while she only paid ₹1260/sq ft, he alleged.

Also Read: ED seeks to uncover more details of ‘South Group’

Kickbacks and IndoSpirit

Businessman Arun Ramachandra Pillai, in previous statements, confessed that he facilitated the payment of kickbacks paid in advance. He became a proxy partner in IndoSpirits and, thereby, the profits of IndoSpirit were routed through him and were recovered in lieu of kickbacks paid in advance.

However, it may be noted that Arun Pillai has sought permission to recant his statement to the ED.

The profits from IndoSpirit from Arun Pillai to Kavitha were to be decided later.

This was further corroborated by Butchibabu’s statement dated 23 and 28 February 2023, wherein he said that Pillai represented Kavitha’s interest in IndoSpirit and the profits from this business were to be held by Pillai for Kavitha.

According to the prosecution complaint, Pillai received ₹32.86 crore from IndoSpirit. This amount — in the garb of profits from IndoSpirit — ws nothing but bribes paid in the advance by the so-called South Group being recovered.

IndoSpirit made certain transactions on the instructions of Pillai directly and transferred ₹25.5 crore into his bank accounts, it was determined.

Pillai and Sameer Mahandru of IndoSpirit further issued excess credit notes to a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company businessman Sarath Reddy‘s retail zones.

The excess credit notes issued to Sarath’s retail zones were to the tune of ₹4.35 crore. Credit notes were issued to three firms of Sarath Reddy, who is a director with pharma major Aurobindo Pharma.

Also read: Arun Pillai files seeks permission to withdraw ED statement 

Vijay Nair and kickbacks from South Group

In April 2022, Pillai along with Kavitha met with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) communication in-charge Vijay Nair at The Oberoi Maidens in New Delhi, to discuss the issues in recovering the bribes paid from their business operations, which were faltering. This meeting has been confirmed by the records of Oberoi Maidens.

The same has also been corroborated by statements of businessman Dinesh Arora, dated 3 October 2022, and Pillai, dated 2 and 11 October 2022, the ED said.

Butchibabu, in his statement dated 23 and 28 February 2023, revealed that the transfer of kickbacks to Vijay Nair was handled by Abhishek Boinpally, a Hyderabad businessman another representative of Kavitha and Pillai.

The fact that Vijay Nair was receiving kickbacks from the South Group was also evident from the notes made by Butchibabu, the ED said.

This was corroborated by a WhatsApp message sent by Butchibabu’s number to another one of his numbers dated 17 August 2021, wherein it was written “V needs money”. On being asked about the context, Butchibabu revealed that by this message he meant that Vijay Nair needs money.

Butchibabu revealed that at a meeting at the ITC Kohenur in Hyderabad — where he, Pillai and Boinpally of the South Group, as well as Nair and Arora were present — a discussion with regard to transfer of kickbacks from the South Group to Vijay Nair took place.

Also Read: Delhi liquor scam: HC seeks ED’s stand on bail plea by Vijay Nair

Pillai is like family: Kavitha

According to the prosecution complaint, in September 2021, a few days after the dinner meeting, Pillai had made Sameer speak to Kavitha on his phone, wherein she congratulated him for the Delhi liquor business and said that she was happy that they had partnered up.

On another occasion, Sameer spoke to her when the L1 application of IndoSpirit was stuck because of certain complaints that were made against the brand and Sameer. When she asked him about the issue, and why it was not getting cleared, and if someone was deliberately trying to sabotage the license, Sameer told her that he would try to resolve the matter at the earliest.

Sameer later met Kavitha in early 2022 in Hyderabad at her house in Banjara Hills. In this meeting, Sameer, Sarath Reddy, Kavitha, and her husband Anil were present.

In this meeting, Kavitha allegedly told Sameer that Pillai was like family to her and doing business with him was doing business with Kavitha, and that they would take this relationship to a larger scale in multiple states and expand majorly.

Also Read: Kavitha deputes lawyer to be present when ED opens her phones