Aam Aadmi Party has written a letter to Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda asking to clarify their relationship with one of the prime witnesses of Delhi Excise Policy case, Sarath Chandra Reddy after the party accused BJP of receiving Rs 60 crores donation from him.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj addressed a press conference on Sunday where he questioned BJP's silence over the accusation of being linked to Reddy and allegedly receiving funds from the pharmaceutical company – Aurobindo Pharma, owned by him.
AAP produced a document on a press conference on Saturday which contained the electoral data documents with the name of the purchaser of the bond, denominations, date of purchase, and other details along with the fact that three companies owned by Reddy paid nearly Rs 60 crore to BJP.
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Reportedly, Bharadwaj stated during the press meet, “We want to raise three key questions in the case – What is the relationship between Reddy and BJP? Who met him from the (BJP) party and what was their conversation? And why were people, the (Central Bureau of Investigation) CBI and the (Enforcement Directorate) ED not informed about receiving funds from Reddy?”
As per a report by the Hindustan Times, Bharadwaj had earlier claimed that ED declared Reddy as kingpin of the Delhi Excise Policy scam but later based on his statement, they arrested Arvind Kejriwal.
The AAP reported that Reddy had acquired several liquor shops in specific zones of Delhi under the recently annulled Delhi liquor policy.
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He underwent questioning on November 9, 2022, and the Enforcement Directorate subsequently arrested him the following day. After spending several months in custody, his statement underwent alteration, leading to his release on bail.
AAP senior leader Jasmine Shah on Sunday called Reddy an 'approver' on the case, she said, “To make Reddy an approver in the case, he was kept in jail for six months after which he changed his statement. They (BJP) not only made him approver under pressure but also took crores from him."
AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar added, "If BJP won’t answer the questions that have been raised (on Sharat Chandra Reddy's donation to the party), then it would be obvious that it has been caught red-handed for being involved in corruption."
Details on Aurobindo Pharma
Aurobindo Pharma bought electoral bonds worth Rs 52 crore with more than half of it going to the BJP, according to data released by the Election Commission.
According to PTI, the Hyderabad-based firm purchased the bonds between April 3, 2021 and November 8, 2023 and an amount of Rs 34.5 crore was donated by it to the BJP, Rs 15 crore to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Rs 2.5 crore to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
In June last year, Reddy turned approver in the case after a Delhi court allowed him to do so. Before that, the ED had accused him of indulging in unfair market practices to gain undue advantages from the liquor policy by conspiring with business owners and politicians involved in the excise case.
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The ED has arrested Kejriwal, former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in a money-laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.
The AAP government scrapped the policy after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in July 2022.
