Liquor scam: ED able to retrieve data from only 17 mobiles of accused

Hyderabad: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, who found that the suspects in the Delhi liquor scam case were destroying their mobile phones and laptops, have sent the seized mobile phones to experts for gathering data.

Of the 170 mobile phones that were seized, ED officials were able to retrieve data from 17 phones.

According to ED officials, the suspects and accused, including political leaders, changed their mobiles and numbers between May and August after the ED took up the case for investigation.

“Fortunately, they were able to recover data from 17 phones. The kickbacks could be much more and the involvement of other important persons would have surfaced.  When suspects destroyed their data from their mobiles, the ED had to investigate further in the Delhi liquor case," ED officials said.

Amit Arora, who played a key role in the case, had changed his mobile phone 11 times and deleted his data from his phone. Hyderabad-based businessman Srujan Reddy changed his phone thrice in 2021 and 2022, Arun Pillai five times, Abhishek Boinapally five times and auditor Butchi Babu six times.

ED officials on Wednesday named political leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for their alleged involvement in the scam.