CBI arrests KCR’s daughter’s ex-CA in Delhi excise policy scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Hyderabad-based chartered accountant Butchibabu Gorantla, in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

He is understood to be a former chartered accountant of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who was earlier questioned by the central agency in connection with the policy. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had alleged that she was part of the “South Cartel” that benefited from kickbacks in the liquor policy case.

“In the ongoing investigation in the Delhi Excise Policy case, CBI has arrested a Hyderabad-based Chartered Accountant, Butchibabu Gorantla, for his alleged role in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy and thereby causing wrongful gain to Hyderabad-based wholesale and retail licensees and their beneficial owners under the Delhi Excise Policy for the year 2021-22,” said a CBI official.

Gorantla will be produced in the special court at Rouse Avenue on Wednesday, and the agency will seek his remand for questioning in custody.

On December 2, CBI issued a notice to Kavitha under CrPC Section 160, requesting her presence in the probe on December 6 in connection with its investigation into alleged corruption in the Delhi government’s now-withdrawn excise policy.

The ED alleged in a prosecution complaint filed in a special Delhi court that the South Group, of which Kavitha is a part, has paid ₹100 crore to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s communication in-charge, Vijay Nair, on behalf of AAP leaders, and in return, received stakes in Delhi liquor business.

Kavitha, however, denied the ED’s allegations, terming them “completely bogus and false”. She tweeted, “Only time will prove my sincerity. It’s a political vendetta of BJP, as they fear BRS Party Chief CM KCR ji’s expose on their anti-farmer & pro-capitalist policies”.

Other prominent members of the South Group include YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, Raghav Magunta, and Sarath Reddy.

In August 2022, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Parvesh Varma and Manjinder Singh Sirsa alleged that Kavitha had a role in facilitating the Delhi liquor policy. Kavitha rejected the charge and said she would file a defamation case.

In its first chargesheet in the case filed on November 25, CBI named seven accused in the case. Those accused are Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun R. Pillai, Mootha Gautham, Sameer Mahendru, Kuldeep Singh, the former deputy commissioner, Excise and Narender Singh, the former assistant commissioner, Excise Department.

In its FIR, CBI had named Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia as responsible for implementing the controversial excise policy, along with 14 others. The agency reached his office on January 14 to collect information related to the case.

The CBI’s first information report (FIR) said, “Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM( of Delhi); Arava Gopi Krishna, then Commissioner (Excise); Anand Tiwari, then Deputy Commissioner (Excise); and Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise), were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to the excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post-tender”.

On July 30, Sisodia announced that the Delhi government’s Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 will be scrapped from August 1.