K Kavitha, BRS leader and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second round of questioning in Delhi liquor policy case. She was earlier interrogated by the ED on March 11 for nine hours in relation to the case.
Last week, the Supreme Court refused to stay the summoning of the BRS leader by ED. Kavitha had pleaded that she should be questioned by the agency at her residence. A woman can’t be called to the ED office time after time, she had argued.
In December last year, the CBI had interrogated Kavitha in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. The central probe agency had filed its first charge sheet in the case against seven accused in November last year.
The BRC MLC’s name was cropped in a remand report filed by the Enforcement Directorate in a Delhi court on the alleged kickbacks in the ‘scam’. Kavitha earlier said that she was ready to face any probe.
“As per the investigation carried out so far, Vijay Nair, on behalf of leaders of AAP has received kickbacks to the tune of at least Rs 100 crore from a group, called South Group (controlled by Sarath Reddy, Ms K Kavitha, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy) by various persons including Amit Arora,” the ED had said in the remand report filed on one of the accused — Amit Arora — in a Delhi Court.
It is alleged that 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 PMLA.
The ED has so far arrested 12 people in the case, including former Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
