New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter K Kavitha in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, officials said on Wednesday (March 8, 2023). Kavitha, who is a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party MLC, has been asked to depose on March 9 before the federal agency in Delhi. She has reportedly been called so that she can be confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, an alleged frontman of the 'south group', who was arrested by the ED on Monday.
The law enforcement agency had earlier said that Pillai "represented the south group", an alleged liquor cartel linked to Kavitha and others. The said "south group", according to ED, "comprises" Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Pharma), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (YSR Congress MP from Ongole Lok Sabha seat), Kavitha and others.
She has also been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in this case earlier.
Meanwhile, Kavitha released an official statement and said that "as a law-abiding citizen", she will "fully cooperate" with investigation agencies.
"...I have been summoned by ED to appear on March 9th in Delhi. As a law-abiding citizen, I'll fully cooperate with investigation agencies. However, due to the Dharna & prefixed appointments, I'll see legal opinions on the date of attending it," says BRS MLC K Kavitha https://t.co/U7PyXtInsV pic.twitter.com/u8Jan7eQZS
— ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2023
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 Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The policy was later scrapped and the Delhi Lt Governor had recommended a CBI probe following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Delhi Excise policy case: ED questions Manish Sisodia in Tihar Jail
The ED on Tuesday also questioned former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia inside Tihar jail as part of its money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy.
It was for the first time that the senior AAP leader was quizzed by the ED in the excise policy case.
The questioning reportedly lasted for about five hours.
The questioning is likely to continue over the next few days even as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi again over the arrest of Sisodia and another party colleague Satyendra Jain.
Sisodia is currently lodged in Tihar jail after a CBI court on Monday remanded him to 14-day judicial custody in the same case.
