The CBI has arrested Hyderabad-based chartered accountant Butchibabu Gorantla on charges of “formulation and implementation” of the controversial Delhi excise policy that led to “wrongful gain” to some liquor retail licensees and their owners during 2021-22.
Gorantla will be produced before a court on Wednesday to seek his remand for custodial interrogation, said a CBI spokesperson.
The CBI, which has already filed a chargesheet in the case in which New Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is an accused, is probing an alleged involvement of a ‘South lobby’ in the Delhi excise policy scam.
The CBI has arrested “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 2021-22,” the CBI spokesperson said.
Gorantla is said to be the chartered accountant of K Kavitha, the MLC and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Kavitha’s name has also figured in the South lobby accused of paying ₹100 crore bribe to AAP leaders for getting a pie in the liquor business of the national capital, the Enforcement Directorate had alleged.
Last year, the probe was launched on the directions of New Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.