ED attaches Rs 115 cr worth assets of its two approvers

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth more than Rs 115 crore of two of its approvers -- TDP Lok Sabha poll candidate Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy’s businessman son Raghav Magunta and Aurobindo Pharma promoter Sarath Chandra Reddy -- in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.

The agency made the disclosure in a chargesheet filed by it on May 10 against former Telangana chief minister and BRS leader K Chandrashekar Rao’s MLC daughter K Kavitha and four others. A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court took cognisance of this prosecution complaint on May 29.

Both Raghav Magunta and Reddy are stated to be the members the so-called ‘South Group’ led by K Kavitha which, the ED has charged, made a payment of Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to tweak the Delhi Excise Policy, 2021-22 to favour the grouping. The policy has been scrapped following charges of illegalities.

The AAP had alleged that the statements recorded by the Maguntas led to the arrest of its supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and that Reddy had paid Rs 55 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds which proves the party has connection with the ‘South Lobby’.

A provisional order for attaching the assets of Raghav Magunta and Reddy under the PMLA was issued on May 3 and the value of the assets of the two are pegged at Rs 1,15,06,27,753 in the ED chargesheet accessed by news agency.

The federal agency said in the chargesheet that it was yet to send the original complaint of this order to the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA for confirmation of the provisional order.This is the third attachment order issued by the ED in this case. It had earlier attached the properties of former Delhi deputy CM and AAP leader Manish Sisodia (over Rs 52 crore) and businessman Sameer Mahandru (more than Rs 76 crore). agencies