Excise policy case: ED to produce BRS leader Kavitha before Delhi court

New Delhi, Mar 16 (PTI) BRS leader K Kavitha is expected to be produced before a special PMLA court by the ED here on Saturday for obtaining her remand for custodial interrogation in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22, officials said.

The 46-year-old MLC, daughter of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief and former Telangana CM Chandrashekar Rao, was arrested in Hyderabad on Friday and brought to Delhi late last night.

A team of doctors and medics were seen entering the federal agency’s office in central Delhi in the morning where Kavitha has been housed after her arrest.

The hospital staff is understood to have been called by the ED for conducting a basic medical check up of the politician before she is taken to the court post noon.

The ED may seek her 10-day custody from the court. Her defence is expected to contest the same as they had called the Friday ED action illegal as her petition for no coercive action in this case is pending before the Supreme Court and is listed for March 19.

As per procedure, the agency also conducts a brief questioning of the arrestee before preparing the remand papers that are placed before the court for seeking their custody.

Meanwhile, the security was strengthened around the ED office at the A P J Abdul Kalam Road with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Delhi Police personnel putting up additional barricades and throwing a security ring along the waiting press teams and curious onlookers.

The ED questioned Kavitha thrice last year in this case and again summoned her this year but she did not depose citing a Supreme Court direction that allowed her protection from any coercive action.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had claimed that Kavitha was linked to a “South Group” lobby of liquor traders, who were trying to play a larger role under the now scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.

It alleged that one of the accused in the case, Vijay Nair, received kickbacks to the tune of at least Rs 100 crore on behalf of the AAP leaders from the “South Group”, allegedly controlled by Sarath Reddy, Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy.

In the last round of questioning by the ED, officials said, Kavitha was confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, who was arrested in the case earlier and allegedly shared close ties with her.

Kavitha has then asserted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the Centre was “using” the ED as the BJP could not gain a “backdoor entry” into Telangana.

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 also alleged in Pillai’s remand papers that he “represented the benami investments” of Kavitha in the case.

Kavitha was earlier questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the case at her residence in Hyderabad.

The ED also recorded the statement of Butchibabu, an accountant allegedly linked to Kavitha.

According to the ED, the accountant said that “there was political understanding between K Kavitha and (Delhi) chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and (then Delhi) deputy chief minister (Manish Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021”.

Nair was arrested in the case by both the ED and the CBI.

The agency alleged the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).