The Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday detained businessman Gautam Malhotra, son of former Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Deep Malhotra, in the Delhi Excise Policy case for 14 days. Gautam Malhotra was sent to judicial custody by Special Judge MK Nagpal until March 1. The court also requested a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a petition filed by Gautam Malhotra seeking ‘grounds of arrest’.
Meanwhile, the ED filed an application in court to have certain remarks made by the court while granting interim bail to businessman Sharath P Reddy expunged. Gautam Malhotra, the Director of the OASIS group, a liquor manufacturing and distribution firm, was arrested on money laundering charges on Tuesday.
Following his questioning in the case, the ED sleuths arrested the businessman. The ED also raided Gautam and his father’s properties in Punjab in October of last year. Gautam Malhotra, Deep Malhotra’s younger son, is said to manage the markets of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, as well as the OASIS group’s distilleries in Ambala and Indore.
According to sources, Gautam is a friend of Amit Arora, the Director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd, who was arrested by the ED in November last year in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam.
The same court recently decided to send a Hyderabad-based chartered accountant (CA), said to be the auditor of Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s MLC K Kavitha, to judicial custody in the now-cancelled excise policy case, which is being investigated by the CBI.
According to the CBI, his (Butchibabu Gorantla) role in the criminal conspiracy with other co-accused persons, in the formulation of favourable liquor policy and deriving undue benefits, has emerged during the course of further investigation.
During the subsequent investigation, the examination of WhatsApp chats recovered from Butchibabu Gorantla’s seized mobile phones revealed certain incriminating facts about the formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy.
“He has remained in regular touch with FIR-named accused persons and other suspects during the relevant period. He has also attended various meetings with co-accused/suspects persons in Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, where criminal conspiracies have been hatched among them,” the CBI said.
