New Delhi: Purchase of electoral bonds just four days after the arrest of the promoter-director by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his alleged involvement in the Delhi excise policy case, and months after his decision to become an approver in the case — this is what data on Electoral Bonds Scheme shows for Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical giant Aurobindo Pharma.
According to this data, uploaded by the Election Commission of India Thursday following the Supreme Court’s directive, the company has donated a total sum of Rs 52 crore through electoral bonds between 3 April, 2021 and 8 November, 2023.
Nearly half of this sum — Rs 25 crore, equivalent to 25 bonds of Rs 1 crore denomination each — was contributed on 8 November, 2023, five months after his decision to become an approver in the Delhi excise policy case.
Aurobindo Pharma director P. Sarath Reddy was arrested by the ED on 10 November, 2022, on charges of being involved in the alleged cartelisation in liquor trade favoured under the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy formulated and implemented by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
Five days after his arrest, Aurobindo Pharma purchased five electoral bonds of Rs 1 crore each.
Apart from its contributions in November 2022 and 2023, the company purchased 15 bonds of Rs 1 crore each in April 2022.
A source in the ED said that they have done due diligence in the case by filing a chargesheet, attaching assets worth Rs 400 crore, and the investigation in the case is still on. The source added, “No such links should be drawn with a company buying electoral bonds as these two things are not connected.”
ThePrint reached Aurobindo Pharma for a comment via email. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The ED in its arguments has maintained that Reddy formed the “South Group” of the liquor cartel as part of the excise policy formulated and implemented by the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and that this group included Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha (daughter of former Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao), and YSRCP leader Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, as its members.
The ED has alleged in its prosecution complaint that this “south group” paid a kickback of Rs 100 crore to AAP through the party’s former campaign manager Vijay Nair, which it used in the Goa assembly elections.
“The conspiracy was orchestrated by Vijay Nair (representative of Manish Sisodia and other AAP leaders) along with the South Group (comprising of Sarath Reddy, Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, Raghav Magunta and K. Kavitha, who were represented by Arun Pillai, Abhishek Boinpally and Buchi Babu). The new Excise Policy of 2021-22 was brought out with an extraordinarily high 12% profit margin for wholesalers and almost 185% profit margin for the retailers. As a scheme, 6% out of the 12% margin was to be collected back from the wholesalers as kickback to the leaders of the AAP. The South Group, however, paid this kickback to the tune of Rs 100 crore approx in advance to Vijay Nair, who was managing this scheme and conspiracy on behalf of the leaders of the AAP (sic),” ED had alleged in its fourth supplementary prosecution complaint filed last year in the case. ThePrint has accessed the complaint.
“In lieu of this advance kickback payment, Vijay Nair ensured that the South Group secured stakes in wholesale businesses as they had no hold/base in Delhi liquor business and their wholesale business gets the business of one of the biggest manufacturers (sic),” it added.
However, in June 2023, Reddy moved an application before the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi to become an approver in the case. The court agreed and he was pardoned in the case.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also Read: Electoral bonds: Lottery firm charged by ED & infra company raided by IT dept emerge as top 2 donors