New Delhi: Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, the sitting MP for Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, who left the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Get together (YSRCP) to affix the Telugu Desam Get together (TDP), is predicted to run within the upcoming common elections from the identical constituency beneath the TDP banner, which is a part of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) and the Jana Sena Get together.
Each Sreenivasulu Reddy and his son Raghava, together with different YSRCP leaders, joined the TDP on 16 March.
ThePrint has learnt that Sreenivasulu Reddy is prone to be the TDP’s candidate from Ongole the place he had registered an enormous victory over TDP’s candidate Sidda Raghava Rao by over 2 lakh votes within the final common elections.
“Negotiations are in the final stage and Sreenivasulu Reddy is all set to contest from Ongole,” a pacesetter near Reddy advised ThePrint.
Raghava was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) within the Delhi excise coverage case, however he later turned approver within the case and secured bail.
The probe into the Delhi excise coverage case for 2021-22 has led to the arrest of a number of excessive profile leaders, reminiscent of Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, and Ok. Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and daughter of former Telangana CM Ok. Chandrashekar Rao.
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Reddys’ alleged position in notorious excise coverage
In line with the ED’s prosecution complaints — the company’s model of chargesheet, which ThePrint has seen — Sreenivasulu Reddy was the outstanding member of the alleged ‘South Group’, which allegedly paid a kickback of Rs 100 crore to Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP).
The ED has quoted Sreenivasulu Reddy’s assertion, recorded beneath Part 50 of the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA) on 14 July, 2023, wherein he allegedly confessed to having explored alternatives for his liquor enterprise in Delhi, for which the company alleged he paid Rs 25 crore via Ok. Kavitha.
Sreenivasulu Reddy has allegedly advised the ED that he noticed that the AAP authorities was privatising the liquor enterprise in Delhi, and he met the Delhi CM on 16 March 2021 to hunt alternatives.
He mentioned within the assertion that Kejriwal knowledgeable him that Ok. Kavitha was already in contact with him and had provided to pay Rs 100 crore to the occasion in trade for alternatives.
In line with Sreenivasulu Reddy, Kejriwal additionally allegedly steered that both he ought to get in contact with Kavitha or she will name him to debate the plan.
“Following this, K. Kavitha called Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy on 19 March 2021 and asked him to meet her. Next day, Sreenivasulu Reddy went to meet her at her residence in Hyderabad. In that meeting, K. Kavitha told him that Arvind Kejriwal had spoken to her and asked her to give Rs 100 core, and accordingly she asked Sreenivasulu Reddy to arrange Rs 50 crore for the same,” the ED mentioned in its prosecution grievance.
In line with the grievance, Kavitha allegedly advised Sreenivasulu Reddy that her chartered accountant (CA) Butchibabu Gorantla (or Buchi Babu) will go to him and his son Raghava to coordinate for a similar.
“Buchi Babu visited them the next day and Raghava Magunta told him that he could arrange Rs 30 crore, and finally Rs 25 crore was paid in cash to (businessman) Abhishek Boinpally and Buchi Babu on the instructions of K. Kavitha,” the grievance alleged.
Raghava Reddy, in his assertion recorded on 26 July final yr, allegedly advised the ED that he paid Rs 25 crore in money to Abhishek Boinpally and Butchibabu Gorantla in response to the “agreement” between himself, his father and Ok. Kavitha.
In the meantime, Kejriwal contradicted Sreenivasulu Reddy’s assertion in his direct deal with to the courtroom Thursday and mentioned that the MP had met him looking for assist in buying land for his household belief in Delhi.
“Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, who is an MP, came to my official residence on 16 March 2021 seeking land in Delhi for his family trust to which I informed him that the issue of land was L-G’s jurisdiction and that I would forward his application,” Kejriwal mentioned, in contradiction to Reddy’s assertion recorded on 14 July 2023.
“Sreenivasulu Reddy had not named me in his first three statements. Then after his son’s arrest, he named me and his son got bail and pardon in the case. His son gives seven statements and only the last one features my name. Only those two statements, which implicated me, get mentioned on record by ED. Why are not all of their statements on record?” the Delhi CM requested.
Arrest, bail and plea for approver
Raghava Reddy was arrested by the ED in February final yr, whereas Sreenivasulu Reddy was questioned by the company on a number of events.
In June 2023, Raghava Reddy was granted 15-day interim bail by the Delhi Excessive Court docket on grounds of his mother-in-law being admitted to a hospital, which was later trimmed to 5 days after the company moved the Supreme Court docket looking for keep on the HC’s order.
The next month, Raghava Reddy secured bail for 4 weeks on medical grounds, which was modified into an “absolute” bail in August because the ED didn’t oppose his bail plea within the Delhi Excessive Court docket.
In October 2023, he was granted pardon and was made an approver within the ED case after courtroom approval, whereas his plea to turn out to be an approver within the CBI case beneath part 306 of the Code of Felony Process (CrPC) was accredited by the courtroom earlier this month.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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