ED arrests YSRCP’s ex–Civil Supplies Minister in the APSBCL liquor-transport money trail; ₹195.3 crore alleged; court production Monday.

The Enforcement Directorate arrested former Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Minister Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao on Sunday, 23 August 2026, from Kondapur in Hyderabad. He is a YSR Congress Party leader. The agency acted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Production before a court was expected on Monday after questioning. These are agency steps on a pending case. They are not a conviction.

The money-laundering file is predicated on an Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department first information report that followed a vigilance report on liquor-transport contracts from the previous YSR Congress government. The Enforcement Directorate alleges that a statewide liquor-transport tender of the Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited in 2020 was manipulated. Sigma Supply Chain Solutions Private Limited is named as the nominal prime contractor. Actual work, the agency alleges, moved through sub-contractors. Those are Enforcement Directorate allegations. They are not findings of a trial court.

On the agency’s estimate, the project generated about ₹349 crore between October 2021 and March 2023. Alleged proceeds of crime, or wrongful loss, are put at ₹195.3 crore. The Enforcement Directorate further alleges that Nageswara Rao and his son Karumuri Sunil Kumar received around ₹15 crore through cash and bank channels, and that an eighty-five per cent profit share was demanded. Sunil, on the same account, handled operations through Sree Sudarsana Constructions. ₹195.3 crore, ₹349 crore and ₹15 crore remain alleged figures on an open file. This desk will not invent a profit-share schedule or a bank-account list the tip does not lock.

Rate lines on the tender conflict across desks and use different units. One public account restates the agency line that the government paid around ₹35 per kilometre against a prevailing ₹13 per kilometre. Another restates a tender around ₹33 per case per kilometre against an earlier figure near ₹19.60, with sub-contractor rates of ₹19–22. The units are not the same. This desk will not merge them into a single invented rate.

Anticipatory-bail history is also reported differently. One desk says anticipatory bail was rejected by the Andhra Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court. Another says the Telangana High Court and the Supreme Court. Both accounts agree that the Supreme Court is on the rejection chain. This desk records the High Court conflict and will not pick which High Court line is true.

Others already arrested earlier in the same trail include the son Sunil Kumar in June, former Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited managing director Vasudeva Reddy, and former information-technology adviser Kasireddy Rajashekar Reddy. Nageswara Rao is described as the fourth accused. The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached about ₹37.7 crore — land at Kokapet and Khajaguda, quarry rights, vehicles, watches and bank balances. A Prevention of Money Laundering Act provisional attachment is subject to adjudication. It is not a final forfeiture order.

YSR Congress former ministers Chelluboyina Venugopala Krishna, Anil Kumar Yadav and Vidadala Rajini called the arrest political vendetta by the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition and alleged a false case. That is their allegation. It is not a finding of this desk or of a court.

Hyderabad’s Kondapur is the arrest geography. Andhra Pradesh is the contract geography. Monday’s court production was the live line for the 24 August paper. Form B and any poll date are not notified on this file. Until a court writes, the public ledger is a Sunday arrest under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, an alleged ₹195.3 crore proceeds-or-loss figure, about ₹349 crore project turnover cited for October 2021 to March 2023, an alleged ₹15 crore to father and son, a provisional ₹37.7 crore attachment, conflicting High Court anticipatory-bail accounts, and a political-vendetta counter-allegation. Every rupee and every charge remains allegation.