Delhi liquor policy probe: ED summons KCR’s daughter, she calls it ‘political witch hunt’

Kavitha, however, denied the ED allegations and claimed that it was a “political witch hunt” in which her father and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is the “real target”. “As a law-abiding citizen, I will fully cooperate with the investigation agencies. However, due to the dharna and prefixed appointments, I’ll seek legal opinion on the date of attending it,” Kavitha said in a statement.

Kavitha is also scheduled to participate in a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on March 10 to demand the tabling of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Budget Session of Parliament. Kavitha said that the summons was linked to the demonstration.

On December 11 last year, a team of CBI officers recorded Kavitha’s statement in connection with the Delhi excise policy case at her Hyderabad residence.

In two prosecution complaints (equivalent to chargesheets), the ED has claimed that members of the so-called ‘south group’ paid bribes to exploit the loopholes in the excise policy that would secure their uninhibited access to various wholesale businesses and retail zones in violation of rules.

According to the ED’s prosecution complaint, AAP communication incharge 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 Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, the YSRCP Lok Sabha MP from Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, and Kalvakuntla Kavitha, are prominent members of the ‘south group’. Others in the alleged group include the MP’s son Raghav Magunta, and P Sarath Chandra Reddy, the son of P V Ramprasad Reddy, founder of the Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma. The ED has claimed that kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore were “paid in advance to the AAP leaders through Vijay Nair by the ‘south group’ as a part of agreement with the AAP leaders”.