ED arrests 2 corporate executives in liquor case

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd said in its filing to BSE that the arrest of Sarath Chandra Reddy is not in any way connected with the operations of Aurobindo Pharma Limited or its subsidiaries

New Delhi: Two private company executives were arrested on Thursday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case related to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is an accused. The two arrested were Benoy Babu, General Manager of liquor company Pernod Ricard, and P Sarath Chandra Reddy, whole time director of Aurobindo Pharma.

Initially, the Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. said in its filing to the BSE said that the arrest of Reddy, is "not in any way connected with the operations of Aurobindo Pharma Limited or its subsidiaries".

Besides these two, the ED had arrested Sameer Mahandru, Managing Director of liquor manufacturing company Indospirit, in September. Officials claimed they were "evasive" during the questioning. The two were allegedly involved in the formulation of the Delhi excise policy along with government officials and also had a role in the "cartelisation" of the entire network, the officials said. The ED claimed to have recovered a draft of the policy from one of the executives when the premises were searched earlier. The agency also claimed to have found that investments worth Rs200 crore in the retail liquor business were made by an entity in violation of the policy directives, they alleged.

The ED has conducted multiple raids in this case so far. The agency early this month raided the premises of a PA of Delhi Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and later questioned him at its office in Delhi. The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR that had named Sisodia as an accused among others. The CBI had raided the premises of the deputy chief minister and some Delhi government bureaucrats after filing the case.