New Delhi: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter K Kavitha on Saturday arrived at the Enforcement Directorate office in the national capital for questioning in connection to the Delhi liquor policy case. Earlier in the day, the party workers and supporters gathered outside KCR's residence in the national capital.
Kavitha launched a hunger strike on Friday at Jantar Mantar in Delhi demanding the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the current Budget session of Parliament. K Kavitha, who was to meet ED on Thursday, cited the hunger strike scheduled in Delhi and asked the probe agency to postpone her questioning till Saturday.
Notably, former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been arrested by ED in the same case.
Kavitha had arrived in the national capital on March 8, hours after the ED issued a summons for questioning. BRS leader KT Rama Rao on Friday also arrived at the residence of his father in the national capital.
Kavitha will be made to sit face-to-face with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who was arrested in connection with the liquor policy case on Monday night, ANI reported citing sources. The MLC termed the summons as "tactics of intimidation" by the Centre against the Telangana CM KCR and the BRS, adding that the party will continue to fight and expose the Centre's failures and will raise its voice for a brighter and better future for India.
The BRS on March 8 slammed the Centre after the ED summoned Kavitha in connection with its ongoing probe in the case and said that the central probe agencies have become an extended arm of the BJP.
Referring to the summons as "politically motivated", BRS leader Ravula Sridhar Reddy had said that except ED and BJP, nobody really understands the case registered in connection with the new-withdrawn new Delhi excise policy. In its investigation, ED has come to know that Pillai is one of the key persons in the entire scam involving payments of huge kickbacks and the formation of the biggest cartel of the South Group, ANI reported.
South Group comprises Telangana MLC Kavitha, Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Group), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (MP, Ongole), his son Raghav Magunta, and others. The South Group was being represented by Pillai, Abhishek Boinpalli and Butchi Babu, the federal agency investigation has revealed.
According to ANI, Pillai along with his associates was coordinating with various persons to execute the political understanding between the South Group and a leader of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Pillai has been an accomplice and was involved in the kickbacks from the South Group and the recoupment of the same from the businesses in Delhi, ED investigation reveals.
The ED had earlier said that the South Group gave kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders. Pillai is learnt to be a partner of 32.5 per cent in Indo Spirits, which had got an L1 licence. Indo Spirits is a partnership firm of Arun Pillai (32.5 per cent), Prem Rahul (32.5 per cent) and Indospirit Distribution Limited (35 per cent), wherein Arun Pillai and Prem Rahul represented the benami investments of Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghava Magunta.
The Delhi government's version is that the policy was formulated to ensure the generation of optimum revenue, eradicate the sale of spurious liquor or non-duty paid liquor in Delhi, besides improving user experience.
The CBI had filed a case against alleged corruption in the 2021-22 excise policy. The AAP government subsequently withdrew the excise policy. Sisodia was among 15 others booked in an FIR filed by the CBI. Excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers, some unknown public servants and private persons were booked in the case.