Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, was questioned Saturday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is probing allegations of money laundering in the Delhi excise policy case. Kavitha joined the ED investigation after being summoned by the agency. On Friday, while securing custody of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the ED informed a Delhi court that it had a statement from Butchibabu Gorantla, a Hyderabad-based chartered accountant, an accused in the case, that “there was a political understanding between K Kavitha and the Deputy CM”. The CBI, which is also probing the excise policy case and arrested Sisodia last month, had recorded Kavitha’s statement on December 11 last year at her Hyderabad residence. On Saturday, Kavitha reached the ED headquarters around 11 am. Security was strengthened in the area as a precautionary measure. “There was a heavy security arrangement and barricades were placed outside the ED office as the supporters of the BRS leader staged a protest. Kavitha took an entry pass, raised a clenched fist before entering their office. She was accompanied by a few members of her staff and legal team, who stayed outside,” an officer said. On March 8, the ED had summoned Kavitha, asking her to join the probe on March 9 – a day after arresting Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai. Officers said they would confront her with the purported disclosures made by Pillai during her questioning. But she sought a fresh date, citing a scheduled day-long hunger strike in Delhi. In two prosecution complaints (equivalent to chargesheets), the ED has claimed that members of an entity called the South Group paid bribes to exploit loopholes in the excise policy to secure uninhibited access to wholesale businesses and retail zones in violation of rules. According to the ED, AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair, acting on behalf of the party’s leaders, “received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group, for convenience, we may call it the South Group (as termed in the statements of various persons recorded during the investigation)”. The ED has alleged that Kavitha is a prominent member of the South Group. Others in the Group, according to the ED, are Raghav Magunta, son of Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, YSRCP Lok Sabha MP from Ongole in Andhra Pradesh; and P Sarath Chandra Reddy, son of P V Ramprasad Reddy, founder of Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma. “The South Group was represented by Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai and Butchibabu Gorantla. Abhishek facilitated the transfer of Rs 100 crore kickback in connivance and conspiracy with Vijay Nair and his associate Dinesh Arora,” the ED claimed. Kavitha has called the ED’s summons a political witch hunt. “Dirty politics is being played in the name of investigation. I have reiterated several times that I have nothing to do with the liquor case or the investigation,” she told reporters earlier.
