Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, was on Friday evening arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case linked to the Delhi liquor policy case.
Kavitha, whose Hyderabad residence was searched for hours since the afternoon, will be taken to Delhi for further questioning, news agencies reported.
Kavitha’s elder brother and former Telangana minister KT Rama Rao argued with ED officials before she was taken away.
“What they informed us is that they will take her (Kavitha) to Delhi by 8.45 pm flight. It appears that they had decided to take her into custody and even booked a flight ticket for Kavitha even before they went to her residence,” former minister Prasanth Reddy told reporters at the BRS MLC’s residence, PTI reported.
A team of 10 officials from Income Tax (IT) Department and Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at Kavitha’s residence.
The searches were in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, in which Kavitha has been named as an accused. Kavitha had ignored several notices from ED and IT to appear before them to record her statement. She had appealed in Supreme Court against the notices.
Kavitha, first questioned by ED last March, was allegedly in touch with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) communication head Vijay Nair. The latter has been accused of engaging with businessmen from the liquor industry and politicians during the formulation and execution of the policy, which was later scrapped.
During her March 2023 interrogation, Kavitha was presented with testimonies of Butchibabu Gorantla, her former chartered accountant, and Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who advocated for her in various meetings with Nair and others. Butchibabu was apprehended by the CBI in February, while Pillai was apprehended by the ED in March 2023.
In his statement recorded before ED officials in February 2023, Butchibabu stated: “There was a political understanding between K Kavitha and chief minister of Delhi (Arvind Kejriwal) and (former) deputy CM (Manish Sisodia) of Delhi. In that process, K Kavitha has also met Vijay Nair on 19th-20th March, 2021”.
“Vijay Nair was trying to impress K Kavitha with what he could do in the policy. Vijay Nair was acting on behalf of the CM of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal and (former) Dy CM Manish Sisodia. The understanding was that in exchange of the favours that can be done in the policy and in the Delhi liquor business for K Kavitha, some funds would be given to the AAP,” Butchibabu had further stated.
According to investigators, Pillai acted as the representative for Kavitha’s illicit or unauthorised investments. Allegedly, he played an active role in forming cartels and was complicit in the payment of bribes on behalf of the South Group.
In its chargesheet, ED has alleged that Kavitha was part of the ‘South group’ that paid Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to AAP leaders in exchange for undue benefits under the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
Kavitha had denied the allegations, describing the ED notices as ‘Modi notices’.
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