New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that arrested Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha paid Rs 100 crore to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.
An ED statement said Kavitha, along with others, conspired with top AAP leaders to get favours in the formulation and implementation of now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
“In exchange of these favours, she (Kavitha) was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to the leaders of AAP,” the central agency stated.
Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, is in ED’s custody till March 23 after being arrested on March 15 folliwing raids at her Hyderabad residence.
The ED said that through “corruption and conspiracy” in the formulation and implementation of Delhi excise policy, “a continuous stream of illegal funds in the form of kickback from the wholesalers was generated for the AAP.”
ED alleged that Kavitha and her aides were to recover the proceeds of crime paid in advance to AAP and to further generate profits/proceeds of crime from the entire conspiracy.
The ED argued in the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court that Kavitha is “one of the kingpins, a key conspirator and beneficiary of the Delhi excise policy scam.”
Kavitha has claimed she was illegally arrested and that she had done no wrong, alleging that the BJP-led Central government was using the ED as the saffron party could not gain a “backdoor entry” into Telangana.