A week after Andhra Pradesh’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) police arrested retired IAS officer and former secretary in the CMO K. Dhanunjaya Reddy and Officer on Special Duty (OSD) P. Krishna Mohan Reddy in an alleged liquor scam in the state, former chief minister and YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has accused the Telugu Desam Party-led state government of “being vindictive and foisting false cases against opponents”.
Jagan also slammed the N Chandrababu Naidu government claiming that allegations in the alleged Rs 3,000 crore liquor scam were fabricated. This comes after the SIT claimed in its remand report and affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on April 27 that between Rs 3,200 crore and Rs 3,500 crore were received as kickbacks from liquor manufacturers through an excise policy that the former Jagan government had introduced in the state in 2019.
Slamming the allegations, Jagan claimed that while the alleged Delhi liquor scam case – the allegations of corruption after the introduction of an excise policy in the national capital from 2021 to 2022 — was “all about the government there shifting liquor deals from public sector to private sector, what we (his government) did was the opposite”.
“Chandrababu on the other hand has encouraged private players in his previous term. Chandrababu Naidu’s fraud has been to rig the tenders for allocating liquor shops and increasing the commission after the allotment without prior approval of the cabinet,” Jagan alleged, accusing his successor if giving “major chunk of orders to five of his favoured distilleries and encouraging the syndicate system in placing indent and in sales as well while the liquor trade was done in a transparent manner in our term”.
“Never-seen brands are in circulation now and are sold at a higher price than the MRP and is available at all times. Chandrababu is the real scamster who rigged the lottery to favour his own syndicate of private mafia and gave 69 percent of orders to only five of his favoured distilleries, increased the capacity and waived privilege fees causing a loss to the exchequer Rs 5 crore and his involvement is on paper which makes the case strong,” he claimed.
He further said: “During our term we have taxed more and liquor sales have come down and during Chandrababu’s term the sales have gone up many-fold is in private sector”.
He also claimed that his party, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party, will observe June 4 as “Betrayal Day to expose the failures of the government”.
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Referring to last week’s arrests, he said: “The government has arrested and has been harassing several officials in a vindictive manner and taking statements and confessions… People are being arrested at will on false cases and charges and even high-ranking police officers are arrested and put in jail,” he said adding that details of “the number of arrests and atrocities” in the state would be put on the public domain.
There is an “undeclared emergency” in the state, he said.
“Chandrababu and his friendly media has been spreading lies on state finances during our term but the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) and other reports are in the open which clearly speak the truth — that we managed the finances better and purchasing power and growth rate were better during our term,” Jagan said.
He further alleged: “He (Chandrababu) has been going for heavy borrowings and pouring all the money into Amaravati, with escalated costs and inflated tenders to benefit his own contractors. Despite declaring Amaravati is a self- financed project, he has been taking huge amount of loans from multiple agencies and has been giving mobilisation advance for kickbacks”.
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According to the SIT, the “kingpin” of the scam as Kasireddy Rajasekhar Reddy alias Raj Kasireddy, who was IT Advisor to former CM Jagan.
Other big names linked to the investigation include the former Rajya Sabha MP Vijaya Sai Reddy, a founding member of the YSRCP who announced his retirement from active politics last year, and P V Midhun Reddy, the three-time MP from Rajampet, who is the YSRCP floor leader in Lok Sabha.
