Continuing his indirect attack on Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Health Minister DL Ravindra Reddy on Thursday alleged that the State Excise Minister has been made a scapegoat over the liquor syndicate issue to protect someone else.
"It needs to be known why the person in high position tried to protect someone who belongs to his own community and how Excise Minister M Venkataramana, who belongs to backward classes, has been made a scapegoat. Why only Venkataramana's name had gone to courts (in an ACB report)," Ravindra Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad.
He was talking about Venkataramana's name being mentioned in an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) report. The report quotes a liquor syndicate member alleging that he paid kickbacks to the Excise Minister.
The ACB has been conducting statewide raids on the liquor syndicates over various violations like selling liquor beyond the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). The ACB has also revealed a nexus between liquor syndicates, politicians and Government officials.
Ravindra Reddy on Wednesday expressed hurt and anger over the way he was divested of some health-related departments in the recent reshuffle of portfolios.
In an indirect attack on the Chief Minister, he wondered on Wednesday "why those in high positions kept silent" when Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy attacked Congress high command.
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