Tadepalli (Andhra Pradesh) [India], September 30 (ANI): YSRCP SC Cell State President and former MLA TJR Sudhakar Babu said Chandrababu Naidu and Lokesh are manufacturing new stories in the liquor case every day to divert public attention from the DSC scam.
Addressing the media at the YSRCP Central Office, he said the coalition, which spoke of a ₹1 lakh crore liquor scam before elections, reduced the figure to ₹44,000 crore, then ₹33,000 crore in its Assembly White Paper and finally ₹3,000 crore through the SIT. He challenged Chandrababu, Lokesh and Pawan Kalyan to explain the changing figures and show evidence of even one rupee of corruption after two years of investigation.
Sudhakar Babu said new statements are being extracted whenever required, from Excise employee Satyaprasad to retired IAS officer Rajat Bhargava. He questioned how claims attributed to Bhargava surfaced in the yellow media 14 months later when they were absent from the August 2025 chargesheet.
He said the Supreme Court had also questioned the SIT’s methods. The SIT is conducting a targeted investigation under Chandrababu and Lokesh’s direction, harassing YSRCP leaders, officials and their families through late-night calls and pressuring witnesses to give predetermined statements, he said.
He cited retired police officer Subramanyam Reddy, former gunmen of MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy and Venkatesh Naidu, to charge that inducements, detention and coercion were being used to manufacture statements.
He said gunman Madan Mohan Reddy was subjected to third-degree treatment after refusing to cooperate, while Venkatesh Naidu told the court that he was offered ₹2 crore for a false statement. He further said the SIT linked ₹11 crore found at a Hyderabad farmhouse to Raj Kasireddy but failed to produce supporting bank receipts before the court, and charged that data was being planted in seized laptops and phones.
Rejecting the government’s liquor narrative, Sudhakar Babu said the YSRCP government never increased the basic price of quarter bottles and raised taxes on distilleries to increase government revenue. Liquor retail remained under government control with only 2,934 shops, whereas more than 64,000 belt shops are now operating under the coalition government, with liquor available from early morning across villages.
He said Chandrababu himself approved 14 of the state’s 20 distilleries and named distilleries linked to TDP leaders including Ayyanna Patrudu, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Putta Sudhakar Yadav and DK Adikesavulu. During 2014–19, over 53 per cent of liquor procurement came from just four or five distilleries through C-Tec software, he said.
He further charged that the coalition cancelled liquor tenders after assuming office, renewed licences for existing operators and deprived the exchequer of thousands of crores in application-fee revenue.
Sudhakar Babu said liquor is now being sold ₹20–₹40 above MRP per bottle and claimed money is being routed through Rakesh to Lokesh. He said the present private liquor system is controlled by TDP syndicates, leaders and MLAs, and claimed that one out of every three bottles available in the state is spurious or adulterated.
He demanded answers on the coalition government’s present liquor regime instead of using the SIT investigation to politically target YSRCP leaders and divert attention from the DSC controversy. (ANI)
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