Hyderabad: ED sleuths quiz owner of media group in connection with Delhi liquor scam

The searches on the media group office follows information reportedly given to the ED by Sameer Mahendru, managing director of Indospirit Group and the first person to be arrested in connection the alleged scam.

A Delhi court had, on Thursday, extended his custody with the ED by four days in connection with the money laundering probe in the excise policy case.

Role of corporate group

The quizzing of the media group owner, who, it is learnt, has not been allowed to move out of his house, comes close on the heels of ED sleuths having summoned one of the promoters of another corporate group to Delhi.

This group, which is primarily a pharma company and forayed into real estate a few years ago, is said to have paid the earnest money deposit, or EMD, for the allotment of liquor shops in Delhi on behalf of several individuals and smaller firms.

The media group has been drawn into the scam owing to the close links of a senior editorial functionary of the channel with AAP leaders, who reportedly played a role in influencing a change in the liquor policy to suit the interests of certain dealers.

The media group, originally started by a Congress leader, is now close to the ruling TRS ever since it came to power in 2014 and allegedly benefitted from its largesse in the form of advertisements.

Though the Telugu newspaper has existed since long, the English channel was started only a few years ago and some TRS leaders too are said to have invested in it.

True to the nature of investigations being done by the CBI or the ED, sources indicated that the agencies may not go so far as to seriously trouble anyone from the family of the TRS chief, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

At worst, a summons to appear before ED is what is being expected.