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Journalism of Courage
An MLC of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), a former MP, and the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, K Kavitha, who has been under the scanner of central investigating agencies for almost two years now, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi liquor policy case on Friday.
Back in 2022, Kavitha first found herself in the eye of a storm as BJP leaders in New Delhi accused her of being involved in the alleged liquor policy scam, in which former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia is one of those arrested. The allegations surfaced at a time when the BJP was trying to make inroads in Telangana, facing resistance from the BRS. In the end, the BJP lost momentum as the elections approached and in last year’s polls, it was the Congress that succeeded in exploiting the anti-incumbency factor against the BRS.
Kavitha has vehemently denied all the allegations against her about the liquor scam. In an interview to The Indian Express just before the elections last year, when asked about the alleged scam, she said, “I had no role in it. They have made sweeping allegations and put the burden of proof on me … But we are fighting it. We are talking about state excesses and the misuse of agencies.”
Kavitha, 46, pursued her studies in the US before returning the state as the Telangana statehood movement gathered pace. She was an active participant in the movement, often leading huge all-women protests.
This is when, Kavitha later claimed, she became aware of the state’s distinct cultural traditions and became invested in promoting them. In August 2006, just five years after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (as the BRS was earlier known) TRS was formed, Kavitha founded Telangana Jagruthi to promote the culture, traditions, and festivals of Telangana. Among other things, Kavitha was instrumental in reviving the Bathukamma flower festival that has now become one of the state’s most popular festivals and an important part of the state’s cultural calendar.
Kavitha plunged into electoral politics in 2014 after the state was formed. She contested the Lok Sabha polls that year from Nizamabad and won by 1.67 lakh votes, defeating the Congress’ two-time MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi. But, failure to to address growing anger among turmeric farmers, who were demanding a turmeric board to regulate prices, saw the BJP take advantage five years later and in 2019 Kavitha lost to the BJP’s Dharmapuri Aravind.
She stayed out of public view for a few months subsequently and returned to public life in October 2020 after being elected to the state Legislative Council from Nizamabad. She was re-elected to the House again in December 2021. She has been critical of the BJP-led Centre, opposing the proposal to auction the assets of a Cement Corporation of India unit in Adilabad, price rise, and inflation.
On December 1, 2022, a team of CBI officers recorded Kavitha’s statement at her Hyderabad home in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. The CBI team took her statement for over seven hours. The following day, the CBI issued her a notice under CrPC Section 160 asking her to join the probe on December 6 in connection with its investigation into alleged corruption in the Delhi government’s now-withdrawn excise policy.
The ED, meanwhile, alleged Kavitha is one of the prominent members of the “South group”. Others alleged to be part of the group include Ongole MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy’s son Raghav Magunta, P Sarath Chandra Reddy, son of P V Ramprasad Reddy and co-founder of Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma.
According to the ED, the this group “secured uninhibited access, undue favours, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy)”. The ED complaint states that to “recover kickbacks given by the “South Group”, partners of the “South Group” were given a “65% stake in M/s Indospirit” in collusion with its owner Sameer Mahendru, also an accused in this case.
In March 2023, Kavitha held a day-long sit-in at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to demand the tabling of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.
