Hyderabad: Telangana Jagruthi president Kalvakuntla Kavitha asserted that the charges brought against her in the Delhi excise policy case was “politically motivated” and termed it “a vendetta” against the opposition parties.
Apart from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bigwigs Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, Kavitha was among the total 23 accused in the high-profile case who were discharged Friday by a special court.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities that came to light in 2022 in granting liquor licences to private individuals and firms in Delhi by the then Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government.
“I have said a hundred times that we have nothing to do with this case. This is a politically motivated case. As part of political vendetta, this case has been put on the opposition parties,” Kavitha told the media Friday outside her party office.
She further thanked the judiciary for “cutting through the web of lies” and clearing her name from the case. Flanked by her husband and elder son, Kavitha expressed her gratitude to her parents, family, and her party workers and supporters.
However, she refrained from making any mention of her brother and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T.Rama Rao, popularly called KTR, and cousin T.Harish Rao, a former minister in the BRS government in Telangana.
In September 2025, Kavitha’s father and BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao, or KCR, suspended her for anti-party activities, an action that came after party leaders slammed her for condemning Harish Rao and her association damaging party interests. Before the suspension, she had indirectly targeted her brother KTR for internal rifts within the BRS.
“Fundamentally, it was a vendetta on KCR and it has been deflected on to Kavitha. Who will account for the time that I lost with my kids? Who will account for the time that I have lost with the family?” she said Friday, calling the case as ‘one of deflected anger’.
The former BRS leader, who spent five months in jail, was among several influential individuals from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana whose names came up in the alleged scam. She was arrested in March 2024 ahead of the general election in May that year by the Enforcement Directorate under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Kavitha’s name figured even in the cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for her alleged involvement in the same scam.
KTR’s tweet on X after the court’s judgement points to this line of argument. He said the “political casualty” of that narrative was the BRS in both the Assembly and Parliamentary elections.
“Kavitha Garu got justice in court today, and in the same manner, every case registered against our leaders will be conclusively exposed as false, politically motivated, and fabricated,” he posted on X.
The names of Kavitha and a few other prominent politicians from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh figured in the so-called ‘South Group’ whose members were said to be Hyderabad-based businessmen Abhishek Boinpally and Arun Ramchandra Pillai, YSRCP leader Magunta Raghav, and chartered accountant Butchibabu Gorantla.
P. Sarath Chandra Reddy, the director of Aurobindo Pharma, was also accused of controlling liquor retail zones in Delhi through proxy entities. He later turned an approver in the case, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) heavily relied on his statements in filing the charge sheet.
The ‘South Group’ was alleged to have paid Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to AAP’s representative Vijay Nair for ensuring the group’s members were favoured as part of Delhi government’s liquor policy.
The CBI as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigated the role of Kavitha and other individuals in allegedly making and moving the money to Goa and Punjab for AAP’s election expenditure there. The ED’s supplementary charge sheet also named Kavitha’s husband Devanapalli Anil Kumar, accusing him of using illegal funds to purchase land for cheap prices.
While there is an ominous silence among senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, and the BRS, other political reactions swung from questioning the CBI’s credibility to questioning if the acquittal will render Kavitha as the real winner in the battle within her family, particularly her brother and cousin.
A BJP general secretary conceded to ThePrint that the trial court’s verdict will be a shot in the arm for Kavitha.
“There is every possibility of her emerging as a new force. The judgement has armed her with a licence to attack BJP because CBI’s and ED’s failure to produce prima facie evidence indeed point to political vendetta and the opposition’s statements have turned true,” the BJP functionary told ThePrint. “This will further strengthen the Congress’ stand in the state and undoubtedly leave the BRS in a fix.”
Similarly, a Congress general secretary did not rule out Friday’s impact on impending elections.
“What about the overwhelming evidence that was produced by the agencies? Has the CBI ignored procedural compliance by the Delhi government in handing out liquor licences since the finger of suspicion initially pointed to this flaw? Whatever the outcome be in the higher courts, the impact of this judgement will echo loudly in Delhi, Telangana, and all the states that are going to polls in the next couple of months,” the Congress functionary said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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