Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha was questioned for hours on Saturday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of representing a ‘South Group’ that gave ₹100 crore bribe to AAP leaders to illegally profit out of Delhi excise policy.

Kavitha, who is also an MLC, arrived at the ED’s headquarters around 11 am from the official residence of her father K Chandrashekar Rao, who is Telangana Chief Minister, on Tughlak Road. Her questioning went on late in the evening. Earlier, she was asked to appear on March 9 but Kavitha sought a fresh date since she had organised a day-long hunger strike in the national capital seeking passage of the Women Reservation Bill from parliament. Her statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as the agency is probing wealth accumulated out of illegal profiteering from the case.

The leader from the Telangana ruling party had addressed a press conference and went on several news channels to state that she has done nothing wrong and would cooperate in the case but insisted that the Centre was using agencies to target opposition leaders, and for gaining “backdoor entry” in the state.

Also read:ED arrests businessman Amandeep Dhal in Delhi excise case

The BRS leaders staged a dharna in Delhi and in Hyderabad as their leader went for questioning at the ED office. Delhi Police and central paramilitary forces personnel were deployed in large numbers and the ED office was barricaded to avoid any untoward incident.

Her appearance before the interrogators came on a day when Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, arrested in the case, moved to a city court on Friday, accusing the ED of forging his statements in the matter. The ED had claimed that he was a front of Kavitha in South Group and was active in the excise case.

Special Judge M K Nagpal has asked the ED to file its reply to Pillai’s application by Monda. Pillai’s lawyer in the application has urged the court that his client wants to retract the confession recorded before the agency on the charges that the officials forced him to sign two documents and presented them as his statements, taken in November 2022. The sleuths are likely to confront Pillai, who is in their custody till Monday, with Kavitha.

The ED has taken the statement of Butchi Babu, a chartered accountant who has worked for Kavitha in the past. “There was a political understanding between K Kavitha and the Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and the Deputy Chief Minister (Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021,” he told the sleuths. Sisodia and former AAP spokesperson Nair have also been put behind the bars in the case.

Butchi Babu also stated Nair was “trying to impress Kavitha with what he could do in the (excise) policy”. Both ED and CBI said that Nair took the bribe of ₹100 crore from South Group, part of which was diverted to fund Goa elections.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW