Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday in over suspected money laundering case related to Delhi liquor policy scandal, sources said.
Hours after a team from a probe agency searched the BRS leader’s Hyderabad home, she was taken into custody. According to sources, Kavitha would be transferred to Delhi for additional investigations after the legal process is finished.
The daughter of the late K Chandrashekar Rao, the chief minister of Telangana, Kavitha had ignored at least two summonses from the investigative agency this year.
The 45-year-old chief of the BRS declined to come before the Enforcement Directorate on January 16 for additional questioning in the case, citing an order from the Supreme Court that said the investigation agency was not allowed to call Kavitha in this particular instance.
The BRS chief did, however, receive a temporary relief from the highest court last year, and sources inside the Enforcement Directorate told news agency PTI that this relief is no longer valid.
Before this, Kavitha had already been questioned three times in relation to the matter last year, and the investigation team had even recorded her statement in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The BRS MLC has insisted that she did nothing wrong and has accused the central government, which is led by the BJP, of “misusing” the probe agencies to get a “backdoor” entry into Telangana.
During interrogation, Amit Arora, one of the accused in the now-dismissed Delhi liquor policy case, mentioned K Kavitha. According to the investigation team, a liquor lobby known as the “South Group” allegedly paid several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) officials kickbacks totaling up to Rs 100 crore via another accused, Vijay Nair.
Further accusations made by the Enforcement Directorate state that K Kavitha’s business associate is the handler of the “South Group”.
In connection with the same matter, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has also received numerous summonses from the investigative body.
