Sarath Reddy is the second person to be arrested by the agency in the Delhi liquor policy case.
New Delhi:
The Director of a pharma company was among two people arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday in connection with its money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
Sarath Reddy, Director of Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma, was arrested along with Benoy Babu of Pernod Ricard late Wednesday night by the agency in the Delhi liquor policy case. Both officials have been arrested under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The probe agency had previously searched his premises and had questioned him twice.
The Enforcement Directorate has conducted multiple raids in this case so far. In September, it arrested Sameer Mahandru, managing director of a liquor manufacturing company named Indospirit.
The central agency filed a money laundering case in August after taking note of a complaint filed by the CBI that had named Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as an accused apart from senior bureaucrats of the Delhi government and others.
Early this month, the agency searched the premises of an aide of Delhi Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and later questioned him at its office in Delhi.
The excise scheme came under the scanner after the Delhi Lieutenant Governor recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi’s Excise Policy 2021-22. The Lieutenant Governor had also suspended 11 excise officials.
The CBI investigation into the liquor policy case started barely a few months before the Gujarat assembly elections are to be held.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that the centre, with the Lieutenant Governor working as a proxy, wants to harm the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) campaign in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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