Delhi excise policy: KCR’s Daughter K Kavitha appears before ED
NEW
DELHI: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha on Saturday appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case on Friday. The MLC’s husband Devanapalli Anil Kumar and other BRS party leaders accompanied Kavitha till she entered into the ED office. Kavita alone went inside the ED office for questioning.
The ED officials served a notice to Kavitha asking to appear before the officials in connection with the Delhi liquor case today around 11 am. As preventive measures, the Delhi police imposed section 144 prohibiting mobs at the ED office. The BRS activists and leaders thronged at the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s residence located at Tuglak Road in Delhi by demonstrating their show of strength. The police have also erected barricades at the place to prevent crowds at the premises.
Kavitha’s brother and Minister K T Rama Rao and T Harish Rao also reached Delhi and discussed with the legal experts in view of ED questioning Kavita. KT Rama Rao and Harish Rao also discussed with the Telangana Advocate General J Ramachander Rao. Meanwhile, the Central forces have deployed at the ED office comprising women forces. The state and central intelligence staff also deployed at ED office and Chief Minister’s residence in collecting information. The TSRTC chairman Bajireddy Goverdhan Reddy, who visited Delhi in support of Kavitha, said that the ED registered cases deliberately to damage the reputation of the BRS party by targeting the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The BRS party and its activists would support Kavitha in protest against the BJP.
K Kavitha, Bharat was questioned for nine hours by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor policy case. She has been summoned again on March 16. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is already under the ED’s custody in the same case. He was also arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for alleged corruption in framing Delhi’s new liquor policy, which was later scrapped.
A key focus of the investigation into the Delhi liquor policy case is on an alleged network of middlemen, businessmen and politicians which the central agencies have called the “South Group”. The ED alleged the liquor policy was tweaked to help companies of the “South Group” and Mr Sisodia diluted the policy in their favour without any consultation.
One of the “South Group” people under the radar is Ms Kavitha. Her father K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, is a key opposition leader in the centre. This is led to allegations against the BJP-led centre of using central agencies to harass opposition leaders with false cases.
“In India, there’s no difference between Enforcement Directorate summons and (Narendra) Modi’s summons… It is a practice now wherever there’s an election, before PM, the Enforcement Directorate comes. What can the opposition do? Go to people’s court or the Supreme Court,” Ms Kavitha told Media on Friday. Ms Kavitha, (44) has said the BJP is trying to “intimidate my leader”, referring to her father KCR, who is hoping for a third consecutive term in power in the state, where assembly elections are due in a few months.The AAP has denied taking bribe from anyone, whether traders or politicians, in framing the Delhi liquor policy. The BJP has said the AAP would not have withdrawn the liquor policy if it was confident of not having done anything wrong.
(Bureau Report with Agency Inputs).
