What electoral bonds data, Kejriwal’s ED remand application reveal: Aurobindo donated to BRS, TDP, BJP pre-director’s arrest; only to BJP after

The ED had alleged that Sarath Chandra Reddy and K Kavitha, daughter of K Chandrashekar Rao, former CM of Telangana, were part of the ‘South Group’ that paid Rs 100 crore in bribes in the excise policy case to the Aam Aadmi Party.

AAP leader Atishi, during a press conference in New Delhi on Sunday, had hit out against Delhi CM Kejriwal's arrest, alleging that the BJP took money from parties linked to the liquor policy case. (Express Photo)

A scrutiny of the Enforcement Directorate’s remand application seeking custody of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal juxtaposed with bond purchases by Aurobindo Pharma reveals: i) purchases made before the arrest of the company’s director by the ED were encashed by multiple political parties — BRS, TDP and BJP, and ii) purchases made after his arrest, statement to ED, and turning an approver, were encashed only by the BJP.

The timing of Aurobindo’s bond purchases and redemptions by political parties is of importance in the wake of the agency’s reliance on the statement of the company’s non-executive director P Sarath Chandra Reddy on April 25, 2023, given to it, to claim Kejriwal is the “kingpin and key conspirator” in the Delhi liquor excise policy case.

The ED had alleged that Sarath Chandra Reddy and K Kavitha, daughter of K Chandrashekar Rao, former CM of Telangana, were part of the ‘South Group’ that paid Rs 100 crore in bribes in the excise policy case to the Aam Aadmi Party. Of this, Rs 45 crore was alleged to have been routed through hawala for funding the party’s Goa election campaign in 2022.

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Reddy was arrested in the case on November 10, 2022. The dataset on electoral bond purchases and redemptions made public by the Election Commission of India, shows that on November 15, 2022, Aurobindo Pharma bought bonds worth Rs 5 crore. The BJP encashed this sum on November 21, 2022.

Reddy recorded a statement with the ED on April 25, 2023, and on June 1, 2023, a special court allowed him to turn approver in the case and subsequently granted pardon. Just months after he recorded a statement in the case, now cited by the ED as crucial evidence for Kejriwal’s arrest, Aurobindo Pharma purchased bonds worth Rs 25 crore on November 8, 2023. All these bonds were redeemed by the BJP on November 17, 2023.

A timeline of electoral bonds bought by Aurobindo Pharma.

Aurobindo Pharma is one of the top pharmaceutical companies, with net profits of Rs 1,927 crore on total revenues of Rs 25,146 crore in 2022-23. Almost 90% of its revenue is generated from international operations.

When Reddy was arrested on November 10, 2022, the company had informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the arrest of Reddy is “not in any way connected with the operations of Aurobindo Pharma Limited or its subsidiaries”.

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Also Read | ED gets Kejriwal custody till March 28, tells court: He is kingpin, key conspirator in Delhi excise scam

Electoral bond data from April 2021 to October 2022 reveals that before Reddy’s arrest, Aurobindo Pharma bought bonds totalling Rs 22 crore. Of this amount, Telangana-based BRS encashed Rs 15 crore, while BJP and TDP encashed Rs 4.5 crore and 2.5 crore, respectively.

In the current case, the ED has alleged that Vijay Nair, the former communication in-charge of AAP and former CEO of Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company, had on behalf of Kejriwal and AAP received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from ‘South Group’. Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Pillai, a close aide of BRS’s K Kavitha is alleged to have paid the bribe to gain a larger share of the liquor market in the national capital under the Delhi excise policy for 2020-21.

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Aurobindo Pharma Director P Sarath Chandra Reddy

In its plea seeking Kejriwal’s custody, the ED has specifically cited Reddy’s statement to show Kejriwal’s meeting with the ‘South Group’. “…as we were investing in Delhi, I expressed my desire to Arun Pillai to meet the top bosses i.e., Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. Arun Pillai assured me to get this done through the help of Vijay Nair. He coordinated with Vijay Nair and informed me that he has taken an appointment from them and accordingly I came to Delhi,” Reddy told the ED, as per the remand application.

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“I state that this was monsoon time so it must be July-August, 2021. I was asked not to carry any mobile and not to bring anyone with me. As decided a black colour SUV picked me up from near the Oberoi Hotel and took me to a house which seemed like a Govt Bungalow. Later, I asked Vijay whose house was it, then he said that he is residing in that house and it was close to the CM house. There, I met Kejriwal for a brief meeting of 10 min or so. Vijay was also present in that meeting,” Reddy told the ED, the remand application claims.

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Reddy also claimed, according to the remand application, that he was assured by Kejriwal to trust Nair, who was described as being smart of handling any issues that may arise. “In this meeting, Kejriwal told me to trust his guy Vijay and that he was very smart and will figure small or big issues if any arise. He spoke about the new policy which had come and that it will be win-win for all. Rest was a courtesy discussion on my business. The same car dropped me back near the Oberoi Hotel,” it quotes Reddy as having said in the statement

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

Anonna Dutt

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More

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