Delhi Liquor Scam: ED gears up probe in State, summons TRS leader's close aide

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate officials on Wednesday intensified probe into the Delhi liquor scam and the links of Telangana businessmen.

After two day grilling, the ED officials reportedly summoned V Srinivas Rao, who is running realty and IT companies in the city, to New Delhi for further investigation. Sources said that the ED officials have got some crucial information of Srinivas in connection with the alleged links between Delhi scam accused and a few top TRS leaders in the Telangana State. It may be recalled that Ramachandran Pillai, one of the accused in the case and owner of Robin Distilleries, and a charted accountant, Gorantla Bucchi Babu, were questioned by the ED sleuths and reportedly found incriminating documents and alleged transactions to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore linked to Srinivasa Rao during searches on Sunday.

The ED sleuths already conducted searches in Srinivasa Rao's companies and residences located in Banjara Hills, Madhapur, and Uppal. The ED and CBI searched six locations linked to Ramachandran Pillai, Gorantla Bucchi Babu, Gandra Premsagar, one of the partners in Robin Distilleries, and Boinpally Abhishek, who is connected to Anoo's, a beauty institution at Madhapur. These led the Central agencies to link them to Srinivas Rao, who is said to be a builder from Karimnagar.

Srinivasa Rao allegedly acted as a middleman for Pillai and eight companies including Robin Distilleries. Alleged transactions worth Rs 2,000 crore from his account to Robin Distilleries and seven other firms were traced. In the fresh raid, the ED reportedly seized some incriminating material indicating links to Pillai's firms.