Delhi excise policy: ED asked Kavitha just 14 questions in 10 hours, claims BRS

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi has alleged that its leader, K Kavitha, whom the Enforcement Directorate is questioning in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case, was asked just 14 questions during the 10-hour-long session on Monday. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, will appear before ED again on Tuesday.

According to BRS sources, Kavitha may address media persons before leaving for the ED office for questioning. Sources also claimed that before leaving for ED HQ, Kavitha would display all her phones before the media, which the central agency claimed she had allegedly destroyed.

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On Monday, Kavitha entered the ED headquarters in central Delhi around 10:30 am and left the agency's office around 9:15 pm, flashing a victory symbol as her SUV waded through waiting journalists and police personnel on duty.

The 44-year-old MLC was first questioned in the case on March 11 for around nine hours, following which she was summoned again on March 16. Kavitha had skipped the deposition last week, citing her pending plea before the Supreme Court for relief against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) action in the case.

The federal probe agency rejected her claims and asked her to depose on March 20. The apex court has decided to hear her petition on March 24. On March 11, Kavitha is understood to have been confronted with the statements made by Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, an arrested accused in the case who allegedly shares close ties with her, apart from those of a few others involved in the case. 

The BRS leader's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Kavitha is expected to have been physically confronted with Pillai and the statements of her former auditor Butchibabu Gorantla during Monday's session.

The BRS politician has asserted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP-led Centre was "using" the ED as the saffron party could not gain a "backdoor entry" into Telangana. Pillai, the ED had said, "represented the South Group", an alleged liquor cartel linked to Kavitha and others, that paid kickbacks amounting to about Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to gain a larger share of the market in the national capital under the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2020-21. 

The "South Group", according to the ED, comprises Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Pharma), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (YSR Congress MP from Ongole Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh), his son Raghav Magunta, Kavitha and others. The ED also alleged in Pillai's remand papers that he "represented the benami investments" of Kavitha in the case. 

Kavitha was earlier questioned by the CBI in connection with the case at her residence in Hyderabad. The ED has so far arrested 12 people in the case, including former Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia. It has also recorded the statement of Butchibabu, an accountant allegedly linked to Kavitha, in which he said that "there was a political understanding between K Kavitha and chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and the deputy chief minister (Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021".

Nair was arrested in the case by both the ED and the CBI. Butchibabu has been arrested by the CBI and questioned recently by the ED. According to Butchibabu's statement, Nair was "trying to impress Kavitha with what he could do in the (excise) policy".

"Vijay Nair was acting on behalf of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia," the statement recorded by the ED read. It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped, and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA. 

With agency inputs

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• BRS
• Enforcement Directorate
• K Kavitha
• Bharat Rashtra Samithi