The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the Rs 3,500-crore liquor scam in Andhra Pradesh of the previous YSRCP regime unearthed and seized Rs 11 crore in cash from a farmhouse in Shamshabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
However, later in the day, the prime accused in the case, Kasireddy Raja Sekhar Reddy, filed an affidavit in the ACB Court in Vijayawada, denying that the seized cash belonged to him.
The cash was hidden in 12 cardboard boxes and then stored in the farmhouse. The SIT officials traced it after interrogating Varun Purushottam, designated as accused 40, during investigations. According to investigators, this was a breakthrough in the probe into the scam, which has seen the arrest of several YSRCP leaders, including sitting MP PV Midhun Reddy.
The newly-appointed BJP state president, PVN Madhav, has predicted that former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will certainly face arrest and go to jail in connection with the liquor scam.
SIT officials have seized cash worth Rs 11 crore, concealed in cardboard boxes and kept at a farmhouse called Sulochana Farm in Kacharam village of Shamsabad mandal in Ranga Reddy district. The SIT claimed that cash was concealed on the instructions of the main accused, Kasireddy Raja Shekhar Reddy, by Varun and another accomplice, Chaitanya, in 2024. The investigators are looking at the roles of both Varun and Chaitnya in transporting and storing the cash received as kickbacks from the liquor companies.
However, the prime accused, Kasireddy in his affidavit before the court stated that the money did not belong to him, terming SIT’s claims as “utter falsehood and lie”. He alleged the prosecution was trying to prevent him from securing bail and hence linked him to the “absurd money trail.”
He added that the son of the owner of the farmhouse runs several business ventures, including engineering colleges, diagnostic centres and hospitals with crores of rupees as turnover. Kasireddy said his wife was just a minor stakeholder in the hospital run by the owner’s family.
Meanwhile, the state BJP president, PVN Madhav, predicted that YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will end up in jail and no one can stop it. Although the SIT has named the former AP chief minister in its chargesheet in the liquor scam, he was mentioned as one of the recipients of the kickback and not as an accused in the scam.
The SIT has alleged that the money received as kickbacks was also used to fund the General and Assembly elections in certain constituencies in 2024. Reddy, however, has denied all allegations of the liquor scam and has accused chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu of conspiring to frame YSRCP leaders in the scam and keep the Opposition leaders in jail.