New Delhi: The Rouse Avenue court in Delhi on Thursday rejected the bail applications of the five accused, who were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi liquor case under Section 3 of the Money Laundering Act, saying no one was eligible for bail. Special Court Judge MK Nagpal on Thursday issued a 123-page long order rejecting the bail applications filed by the five main accused Sameer Mahendru, P Saratchandra Reddy, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and Binoy Babu.
According to the behaviour of the accused in the records, the court was not confident that the evidence will not be tampered with if the accused were released on bail. The ED had already levelled serious allegations against the accused of trying to erase the evidence by changing and destroying their phones several times. The agency specifically mentioned that P Saratchandra Reddy had destroyed digital data. The judge stated that the role of all the accused and the money that was illegally earned by them should be revealed.
It was mentioned that South Liquor Lobby had given bribes of Rs 100 crore to Vijay Nayar, one of the accused. An investigation has revealed that although Vijay Nayar is the media in charge of AAP, he participated in the meetings held with the liquor business partners as a representative of AAP and the Delhi government. The court stated that Nair's role should be looked into as he was staying at the official residence allotted to a senior AAP minister. It seemed that he participated in the meetings in the capacity of an official of the Excise Department of the Delhi government
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Moreover, no one else officially participated in those meetings on behalf of the Delhi government and AAP. The judge said in the order that the accused had entered into a criminal conspiracy to provide undue benefits to some members of the liquor lobby by paying huge bribes. Judge Nagpal raised concern over Saratchandra Reddy's role in his order. Saratchandra Reddy reportedly played an active role in paying Rs 100 crore of donations. He was also instrumental in making plans to recover that amount. Although he could not get more than two retail licences, he managed to get licences for five retail zones. There was evidence that two licences were allotted to a company called TCL and three licences were kept in the name of anonymous companies like Avantika and Organics.
In his order, the judge also referred to the judgments given by the Supreme Court in the cases of YS Jaganmohan Reddy vs CBI and Nimmagadda Prasad vs CBI in 2013, as serious economic crimes have a severe impact on the country and the people. While the Rous Avenue Court rejected the bail petition of the five accused arrested in this case, Hyderabad-based liquor dealer Arun Ramachandra Pillai was interrogated by the ED at its office in Delhi.
In the chargesheet submitted to the court earlier, the ED stated that Pillai played a key role in the collection and distribution of donations of Rs 100 crore from South Group. In the same case, it is learnt that the ED, which had kept YRSCP MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy's son Raghav in custody, interrogated Pillai in his presence on Thursday. The trial started at 4 pm and went on for more than 3.30 hours.
