TDP Parliamentary Party leader Lavu Srikrishna Devaraya, who spoke in the Lok Sabha on Monday during the debate on the Finance Bill alleged that Rs 4,000 crore was transferred across the country to Dubai and African countries in the huge liquor scam that took place during the YS Jaganmohan Reddy regime in AP.
He explained that out of the total liquor sales of Rs 99,000 crore, only Rs 650 crore were cashless transactions. Out of this, Rs 18,000 crore was allegedly misused. Along with that, Rs 4,000 crore was said to have been transferred through benami transactions.
He alleged that Rs 2,000 crore was transferred to Dubai by a person named N. Sunil Reddy. He said that another thousand crores were transferred to African countries. He recalled that an MP in the Rajya Sabha resigned despite having a four-year term due to the liquor scam in AP.
He said that Baahubali, RRR and Pushpa movies collected Rs. 1700 crores to Rs. 2000 crores only, and that more than that was collected in the name of liquor in Andhra Pradesh in the last five years. He explained that just as there is pre-production, production and distribution for movies, the same style continued in the Andhra Pradesh liquor scam.
“They took over all 20 to 25 distilleries in AP at the production level. They introduced 26 new companies. They created new brands that were not heard or seen anywhere in the country. Do you know how they distributed the new brands once they were created? They gave the new brands to AP Beverages Corporation Limited. They sold them in shops run by the government. All the transactions were done in cash,” he added.
He said that during 2019 elections at pre-production level, the YCP promised to impose a ban on alcohol if they came to power. If not, they announced that they would raise prices so that the common man could not drink. However, he deplored that when they reached the production level, they went to the liquor manufacturing companies and demanded to give liquor at the price they decided.
As they were all international brand companies, they refused to oblige the government and could not supply at those prices. On this pretext, the people in the government themselves started production of liquor from their own benami companies, by which cheap liquor was sold at abnormal prices, he alleged.