New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday evening arrested K. Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and daughter of former Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the now-withdrawn Delhi excise policy.
Sources in the agency told ThePrint that Kavitha was arrested after the ED conducted raids at her house in Hyderabad along with teams of the Income Tax Department. She would be brought to the agency’s headquarters in New Delhi for further questioning, they said.
Working president of BRS K.T. Rama Rao, who was present during the arrest, protested the action and alleged that the ED violated its undertaking to the Supreme Court given last September that it would not take any coercive action against Kavitha.
He also alleged that ED officer Bhanu Priya Meena claimed the agency did not have a transit remand to take Kavitha to Delhi, while ED officers took objection to his entry to Kavitha’s residence, ThePrint has learnt.
According to the arrest order, which ThePrint has seen, ED said it has “reasons to believe” that Kavitha committed an offence punishable under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and hence was arrested according to Section 19(1) under it, at 5.20 pm Friday.
Kavitha earlier skipped several summonses by the agency in the case and has moved the Supreme Court challenging them.
The money laundering case that the ED is probing stems from a case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2022, alleging irregularities in the planning and implementation of the now-withdrawn Delhi excise policy for the year 2021-22.
The ED stated in its prosecution complaint that Kavitha was part of the alleged “south group” that it suspects paid a bribe amount of Rs 100 crore to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) campaign manager Vijay Nair, which the party allegedly used for campaigning in Goa.
Further, the ED claimed that there was understanding between Kavitha and the top leadership of AAP, including party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on expanding the liquor business of the so-called “south group” in the national capital and that, under the excise policy in question, profit margin was increased to 12 percent from the earlier 6 percent for wholesalers and to almost 185 percent for retailers.
The probe in the case has seen several high-profile arrests, including that of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nair.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)