Hyderabad, June 18 (IANS) The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Thursday arrested Karumuri Sunil Kumar in connection with the transport scam linked to the Andhra Pradesh liquor scam.

Sunil Kumar, son of former Andhra Pradesh minister Karumuri Nageswara Rao, was later produced before the Special Court (PMLA), which remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days. The accused was subsequently shifted to Chanchalguda Central Jail.

During the arguments, the Public Prosecutor told the court that, as Sunil Kumar’s father, Nageswara Rao, was a minister for Civil Supplies in the YSR Congress Party government, he managed to secure liquor transport sub-contracts for his business associates. The court was told ED found during the investigation that Sunil Kumar and his associates derived unlawful pecuniary gains.

Last week, ED conducted searches under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at five premises in Hyderabad belonging to Kesireddy Rajashekhar Reddy alias Raj Kesireddy, Dontireddy Vasudeva Reddy, Vijaya Narasimha Reddy, Vallu Sandeep, Karumuri Nageswara Rao, and Karumuri Sunil Kumar.

ED Hyderabad Zonal Office arrested former IT advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Raj Kesireddy, and former Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Ltd. (APSBCL), Vasudeva Reddy, under the provisions of PMLA, 2002. Both were produced before the Special Court (PMLA), which sent them to judicial custody till June 25.

The searches led to the seizure of a luxury car, costly watches valued at Rs 94.5 lakh and unaccounted cash. Incriminating documents, including suspicious joint venture agreements, unaccounted cash transactions and property documents were recovered and seized.

ED investigation revealed that Kesireddy emerged as the principal conspirator and the controlling mind behind the organised financial crime involving the manipulation of liquor transportation tenders floated by APSBCL.

It has emerged that, by leveraging his political influence and by utilising his position as former IT Advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, he entered into a criminal conspiracy with the then Managing Director of APSBCL, Vasudeva Reddy, and his close associate Tukekula Eswar Kiran Kumar Reddy, for the purpose of subverting the established transportation policy framework of APSBCL and deriving unlawful pecuniary gains.

ED said it initiated an investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by CID, Andhra Pradesh, under various sections of IPC and the BNS, based on a complaint of the Additional Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh (Vigilance), for loss to the Government exchequer to the tune of Rs 195.33 crore.

ED investigation revealed that the liquor transport tender conditions of APSBCL were deliberately modified and tailored in favour of selected entities, namely Sigma Supply Chain Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (SSCSPL) and subsequently Prasad Transports, which acted merely as front entities while the actual operational and financial control remained with persons associated with Kesireddy, Vasudeva Reddy and their associates.

ED investigation further revealed that the liquor cartel devised a mechanism to generate unlawful gains through the transportation of liquor from depots to retail outlets in Andhra Pradesh.

–IANS

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