The high-profile liquor scam shaking Andhra Pradesh is only getting deeper, with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) making major arrests. After detaining former AP government advisor Kasireddy Rajasekhar Reddy, better known as Raj Kasireddy, the SIT has now arrested Sajjala Sridhar Reddy from Hyderabad. He was arrested on Friday evening and brought to Vijayawada, where he is likely to be presented before the court by Saturday evening. Sources say that vital information given by Chanakya, brother-in-law of Raj Kasireddy, resulted in the arrest of Sridhar Reddy.
Sridhar hails from Tummalapalli village in Thondur Mandal, Kadapa district. His political and business influence became more formidable after he got married to the daughter of SPY Reddy, a past Member of Parliament from Nandyal and a prominent industrialist.
After marriage, Sridhar Reddy relocated his headquarters to Nandyal, where he took charge of SPY Reddy’s business activities. He also tried to pursue a political career, running unsuccessfully in the 2012 West Rayalaseema Graduates’ MLC elections. In 2019, he again plunged into electoral politics as a Jana Sena Party candidate from Nandyal Assembly constituency. But after YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s landslide win, Sridhar quickly set sail with the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), banking on his Pulivendula heritage and family ties to find himself amongst the Chief Minister’s inner coterie.
Under YSRCP rule, SPY Agro Industries in Nandyal were said to have emerged as a key manufacturing hub of different brands of liquor. The brands were said to have been procured by liquor syndicates and were allegedly manipulated at SPY Agro to change their quality specifications, said SP authorities.
The authorities state that Sridhar Reddy was instrumental in dictating the liquor trade — from framing liquor policies and choosing individual brands to negotiating commissions, taking payments, and managing distribution operations. His role is thought to be as instrumental as that of Raj Kasireddy and hence, he is an important protagonist in the ongoing liquor scam probe.
The SIT is likely to go deeper into Sridhar’s activities, with more startling revelations in the days to come.