New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar’s (KCR) daughter K. Kavitha on 9 March for questioning in the Delhi liquor scam.
In a statement, Kavitha assured her full cooperation as a “law-abiding citizen” but warned the Centre that such “tactics of intimidation… would not deter us”.
Kavitha said she would be in Delhi to attend a one-day protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on 10 March, demanding the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.
Due to the “dharna and pre-fixed appointments”, Kavitha will seek legal opinion before her ED appointment the day before, she said.
"…I have been summoned by ED to appear on March 9th in Delhi. As a law-abiding citizen, I'll fully cooperate with investigation agencies. However, due to the Dharna & prefixed appointments, I'll see legal opinions on the date of attending it," says BRS MLC K Kavitha https://t.co/U7PyXtInsV pic.twitter.com/u8Jan7eQZS
— ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2023
Under the leadership of Chandrashekar, she said in her statement, “… we will continue to fight to expose your failures & raise voice for a brighter and better future for India”.
“Let me also remind the power mongers in Delhi that Telangana has never and will never bow before the oppressive anti-people regime. We will fearlessly and fiercely fight for the rights of the people,” she said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the BRS leader in connection with the Delhi liquor scam and the ED has named Kavitha in its chargesheet in the case.
After her father’s Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) went national to become BRS, Kavitha has been looking after the party’s all-india strategy with the aim to rival the BJP.
Last August, she was implicated in the Delhi “liquor policy scam”, an investigation that has seen many jailed, including former Delhi deputy chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia.
The CBI’s case against Sisodia is that he granted liquor licences to certain traders in exchange for bribes – and tweaked the now-withdrawn excise policy of 2021-22 for this.
Late last year, her name appeared in the ED’s chargesheet which alleged that she was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the scam.
The ED alleged that the “South Group”— comprising Kavitha, top Hyderabad businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy and YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasula Reddy – paid kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government to gain control over the capital’s liquor business.
Kavitha was interrogated by the CBI on 11 December, almost a week after she got summons. After hours of questioning, she lashed out at the BJP for targeting her while Chandrashekar was making an effort to establish his national party. She had said she was ready to go to jail and fight against the BJP.
Her former auditor Buchibabu Gorantla was arrested in the case early February, and got bail on Monday.
The CBI said Gorantla played a role in formulating and implementing the Delhi Excise Policy and causing wrongful gain to Hyderabad-based wholesale and retail licensees and their beneficial owners.
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