Supreme Court grants regular bail to Muppidi Avinash Reddy, an accused in Andhra liquor ‘scam’ case

The Supreme Court on Friday (March 20, 2026) granted regular bail to Muppidi Avinash Reddy, an accused in the alleged Andhra Pradesh multi-crore liquor ‘scam’.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant invoked plenary powers of the apex court under Article 142 of the Constitution to grant Mr. Reddy, represented by senior advocate Siddharth Dave, relief.

The court said the regular bail would continue during the pendency of the trial proceedings in the case. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra appeared for the State of Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Reddy had approached the apex court for anticipatory bail, but had surrendered after the apex court had earlier asked him to do so. The court pointed out that some of the accused have already been granted bail.

The Bench left it to the discretion of the trial court to impose stringent bail conditions on Mr. Reddy.

The court clarified that the order would not be treated as a binding precedent. It had not passed any remarks on the merits of the case.

Mr. Avinash Reddy, a relative of Kassireddy Rajashekar Reddy (A-1), was charged with playing a vital role in collecting kickbacks and distributing money in the scam.

Multiple investigation agencies are probing the liquor syndicate scam. The allegation is that the accused persons had caused a loss of about ₹3,500 crore to the State exchequer during the tenure of the previous government. According to investigators, the accused formed a syndicate, disabled the online liquor sales system and introduced a manual cash system. They allegedly monitored the supply and sale of liquor through government retail outlets.

Some officials of the A.P. State Beverages Corporation Limited allegedly colluded with the syndicate members and resorted to large-scale irregularities while issuing supply orders.