Delhi Excise Policy Scam Case: BRS leader Kavita will face Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioning for the second time in the national capital today (March 16) in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy.
Heavy security has been deployed outside the Delhi residence of BRS MLC ahead of his questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi Excise Policy matter on Thursday.
ED Inquiry Round 1:
Earlier, he was produced before the ED for nearly nine hours on Saturday (March 11) to record his statement. The 44-year-old daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao left the federal agency’s headquarters at APJ Abdul Kalam Road at around 8 pm amid a huge presence of her supporters.
She had reached the ED office at around 11:00 am from her father’s official residence on Tughlaq Road, about one and a half kilometer away. Official sources said that during the nine hours he spent at the ED office, he was confronted with the statements of Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramachandran Pillai, who is an arrested accused in the case and allegedly has close links with him, besides a few people. others involved in the case.
He said Kavita’s statement was earlier recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Pillai, the alleged frontman of the ‘South Group’, was arrested by the ED earlier this week. Meanwhile, Pillai has approached a city court accusing the ED of falsifying his statements in the case. There was a heavy presence of Delhi Police and central paramilitary forces personnel for the barricading of the ED office as supporters of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader protested both during Kavita’s entry and exit from the ED office.
Kavitha, during a recent press conference, insisted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP-led Center is using the ED as the saffron party cannot enter Telangana through the backdoor. . According to the ED, the “South Group” includes 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 paper that he represented Kavitha’s benami investments in the case. The BRS leader was earlier questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in this case. The ED has so far arrested 12 people in the case, including former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
It has also recorded the statement of Buchi Babu, a chartered accountant allegedly associated with Kavita, where he said, “There was a political understanding between K Kavita and the Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and the Deputy Chief Minister (Sisodia). In that process, K Kavita also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021.”
Nair was arrested by both ED and CBI in this case. Buchi Babu is arrested by the CBI. According to Buchi Babu’s statement, Nair was “trying to impress upon Kavitha as to what he could do in the (excise) policy”. “Vijay Nair was acting on behalf of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia,” the statement recorded by the ED said.
It has been alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy to grant licenses to liquor traders for 2021-22 allowed cartelization and favored some dealers who allegedly paid bribes for it, an allegation strongly contested by AAP was refuted. The policy was later scrapped and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.
(with inputs from agencies)
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