In a major development in the ongoing probe into the alleged ₹3,200 crore liquor scam in Andhra Pradesh, YSR Congress Party MP P V Midhun Reddy was on Sunday remanded to judicial custody till August 1 by a special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in Vijayawada.
Reddy, who was arrested late Saturday night following a seven-hour interrogation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), was presented before the court after undergoing a mandatory medical check-up. He has been named Accused No. 4 (A-4) in the case, which involves top political and bureaucratic figures from the previous YSRCP regime.
The SIT, in its 28-page remand report, described Midhun Reddy as one of the “chief architects and principal executors” of the alleged liquor syndicate. Though he held no official role in the Excise Department or the Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited (APBCL), Reddy is accused of exerting significant influence over key policy decisions to favor specific distilleries in exchange for massive kickbacks.
The report revealed that Reddy allegedly engineered a policy shift from a data-driven ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) procurement system to a manual, email-based Order for Supply (OFS) system, giving select distilleries unfair market advantages. This change, according to the SIT, enabled discretionary and arbitrary allocation of orders, suppressing established liquor brands and boosting entities linked to the accused.
The SIT also alleged that Reddy was instrumental in the appointment of D Satya Prasad (A-3) as Special Officer of APBCL, who furthered the objectives of the syndicate through selective promotions and reallocation of orders.
One of the key meetings to strategize the syndicate’s operations reportedly took place at the residence of former Rajya Sabha MP V Vijay Sai Reddy on October 13, 2019, and included several other accused individuals like Kesireddy Rajasekhar Reddy alias Raj Kesireddy (A-1) and Avinash Reddy (A-7). The group allegedly projected monthly illegal earnings of ₹50-60 crore through kickbacks from liquor companies.
Further, Reddy is said to have planned the elimination of private liquor outlets in favor of government-run retail units to monopolize procurement and kickback collection. The SIT also alleged that IIT graduates were recruited as collection agents, and shell companies were set up to route illicit funds via hawala channels.
Reddy is expected to be transferred to Rajahmundry Central Jail, while investigations into the wider network and financial transactions linked to the scam continue.
(This story is published from a syndicated feed)