Delhi excise policy case: Kavitha appears before ED for questioning

BRS leader K Kavitha on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for the second round of questioning in the Delhi excise policy linked money laundering case, officials said.

The 44-year-old MLC daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was first questioned in the case on March 11 following which she was summoned again on March 16.

Kavitha, however, skipped the deposition citing her pending plea for relief against the ED action in the case.

The federal probe agency rejected her claims and asked her to depose on March 20.

During the nine hours she spent at the ED office on March 11, Kavitha is understood to have been confronted with the statements made by Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, an arrested accused in the case who allegedly shares close ties with her, apart from those of few others involved in the case.

The BRS MLC's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Kavitha has asserted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP-led Centre was "using" the ED as the saffron party could not gain a "backdoor entry" in Telangana.

Pillai, the ED had said, "represented the South Group", an alleged liquor cartel linked to Kavitha and others that paid kickbacks amounting to about Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to gain a larger share of the 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 also alleged in Pillai's remand papers that he "represented the benami investments" of Kavitha in the case.