New Delhi: Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K. Kavitha left for the office of the Enforcement Directorate Tuesday morning, waving two transparent plastic bags full of phones before the Delhi media.
These were “proof” she would present to the probe agency as her interrogation resumed for the third time on Tuesday in the Delhi liquor policy scam.
#WATCH | Delhi: BRS MLC K Kavitha leaves from the residence of her father, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, for the ED office
ED yesterday questioned her for over 10 hours in connection with her alleged role in the Delhi liquor policy case. pic.twitter.com/qtY1r0jAfw
— ANI (@ANI) March 21, 2023
In a letter to the ED, the BRS leader wrote: “In continuance and furtherance of my repeated appearances before you & rendering all due assistance and cooperation, and despite the actions of the agency being ex facie malafide, I am today submitting all the earlier phones that I may have used in the past, and as sought by you, which (I) could gather.”
The daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao added in her letter: “These phones are submitted without prejudice to my right and contentions and larger contention whether a woman’s phone can be intruded, in the teeth of her right to privacy.”
The 44-year-old MLC was first questioned in the case on 11 March for around nine hours following which she was summoned again on 16 March.
Kavitha skipped the deposition last week, citing her pending plea before the Supreme Court for relief against the ED’s action in the case.
The federal probe agency rejected her claims and asked her to depose on 20 March, which she did for 10 hours. The apex court has decided to hear her petition on 24 March.
The ED has said the “South Group”, an alleged liquor cartel linked to Kavitha and others, paid kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to gain a larger share of the liquor market in the national capital under the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for 2020-21.
The “South Group”, according to the ED, comprises Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Pharma), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (YSR Congress MP from Ongole Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh), his son Raghav Magunta, Kavitha and others.
The ED has so far arrested 12 people in the case, including former Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
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