Why a channel reporting the Delhi excise ‘scam’ became the news

Amid a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in Delhi’s liquor policy, Aam Aadmi Party leaders’ alleged links to the case, the crores of rupees involved, and multiple raids across the country have thrown up several media reports. But one particular media outfit has gone from reporting on the alleged scam to becoming the story itself.

At least three people involved with India Ahead and its parent company Andhra Prabha are being probed by central agencies over the case. The ED has also conducted raids at the media organisation’s premises.

On Monday, Hyderabad businessman Abhishek Boinspally was arrested, whose links to the media house Newslaundry will further detail. India Ahead and Andhra Prabha managing director, Gautam Mootha, was questioned by the ED on Tuesday and by the CBI on Wednesday. Arjun Pandey, the company’s president of sales and marketing, meanwhile, was named in the FIR filed by the CBI on August 17.

But who are the accused, and what are their links with the company, with AAP, and the “liquor scam”?

Sisodia’s aide or channel’s sales head?

Andhra Prabha was a Telugu daily founded in 1983 by Ramnath Goenka under the Indian Express Group, but the ownership has since transferred to Mootha Gopalkrishna, former MLA of Kakinada. Andhra Prabha Media Group started India Ahead channel in 2018, which has bureaus in Delhi and Hyderabad.

The CBI FIR names Arjun Pandey as one of the 15 people accused. It is alleged that Pandey had collected a huge amount of cash once – anything between Rs 2 crore and 4 crore – from Sameer Mahendru, on behalf of Vijay Nair.

Pandey is the president of sales, marketing and strategy at India Ahead. But when Newslaundry contacted Bhupendra Chaubey, the channel’s editor-in-chief, he said that Pandey had just been a consultant and had resigned two months ago.

Mahendru, the managing director of Indospirit Group, who was arrested by the ED, was named as the alleged kingpin of the now scrapped excise policy in Delhi.

Nair, meanwhile, is the AAP communications in-charge and the former CEO of events company Only Much Louder. He was arrested by the CBI, which alleged his role in the liquor policy, and in “meeting other co-accused and liquor manufacturers as well as distributors in different hotels at Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi for arranging ill-gotten money through hawala”.

Pandey – who has links with AAP, India Ahead, and the alleged liquor scam – is the co-owner of 24 Frames Films Ltd, a content production house. According to “Association of Entrepreneurs”, he has worked on projects for WHO, UNICEF, UNDP and the Gates Foundation, among others.

But the CBI has also claimed that Pandey is a “close associate” of Manish Sisodia, who is also an accused in the FIR.

Why a company called Zeus matters

After Nair, the CBI arrested Abhishek Boinpally on Sunday night, after he allegedly “remained evasive” while being questioned about transactions worth over Rs 3.5 crore that were routed through bank accounts.

Boinpally is a Hyderabad-based businessman, who has been accused of lobbying for liquor businessmen in southern India. His father was one of the founding members of the TRS.

According to data by Zuaba Corp, he is the director of nine businesses. One of them is Robin Distribution LLP, which he runs with Arun Ramachandran Pillai, who is also named in CBI’s FIR. The two founded the company in July 2022.

The other curious business Boinpally is additional director of is Zeus Networking Private Limited, a company incorporated in 2010. Interestingly, the only director listed other than Boinpally, as per the government’s MCA data, is Gautam Mootha, the MD of Andhra Prabha group.

The company is described as a firm that does “other computer related activities, for example maintenance of websites of other firms/ creation of multimedia presentations for other firms etc.”

Boinpally is listed as an additional director from October 6, 2021, while Mootha is listed as additional director from February 11, 2022. The address that the company is registered under is the same as four other companies: CDG Multimedia productions, CDG Multimedia Systems, Pearl Vincom Private Limited, CDG Publications.

On visiting the address, Newslaundry noticed that the name plate and the signboard had only CDG written on it. The employees present claimed that Zeus Networking had a registered address there as it used to be owned by Pankaj Arora, who owns the CDG companies.

But Zeus was sold in February, they said.

Data filings Newslaundry went through confirm the same. Arora was the director of the company from its incorporation in May 2020 till February 11, 2022 – the day when Mootha joined as additional director. Boinpally, meanwhile, had been director since October 2021.

The excise policy had been implemented in November 2021.

CBI officers had also allegedly visited the premises 10 days ago to enquire about the company.

Mootha was questioned by the ED and CBI this week, in connection with the case. Gautam Mootha’s father, Gopalkrishna Mootha is currently a politician with the Jana Sena Party in Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, Boinpally’s custodial interrogation was Thursday extended by two days by a court in Delhi.