The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will quiz K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in connection with the now scrapped Delhi’s Excise Policy Case in December 11, sources said.
A CBI source related to development told The New Indian, “We will question Kavitha on December 11 in Hyderabad, in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia has been named as accused number number one.”
The CBI had earlier summoned Kavitha, who is a MLC in Telangana for questioning on December 6.
However, she wrote back to the CBI saying that she would not be able to attend the questioning on December 6 due to earlier engagements.
She then said that she will be available on December 11, 12, 14 and 15 for questioning by the CBI at her residence in Hyderabad.
In her letter to the CBI, the Bharath Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader also said that she had carefully gone through the contents of the FIR, list of accused persons as well as the contents of the complaint dated July 22. “I wish to place on record that my name does not figure in any manner what so ever,” she said.
Kavitha came into the news after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged that she was a key member of the “South Group” which paid at least Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to leaders of Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) via another arrested businessman and AAP communication incharge Vijay Nair.
The ED, which is probing the money laundering case in the excise policy case made the revelations in the court last week after arresting Gurugram based businessman Amit Arora, one of the accused named in the case.
In its remand paper of Arora, the financial probe agency alleged that the 12 per cent profit margin to the wholesalers was devised to extract half of it as a kickback to the AAP leaders.
“As per the investigation carried so far, Nair, on behalf of leaders of AAP has at least received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group, called South Group, controlled by Sarath P Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma, K Kavitha, who is elected as Member of Legislative Council from Nizamabad Local Authorities’ Constituency in October 2020 in the bypoll, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, by various persons including Arora,” the ED said.
The ED said that the same has been disclosed by the arrested accused Arora in his statements.
The ED has so far arrested Nair, Hyderabad-based Abhishek Bonipally, Reddy, Arora, Sameer Mahendru, MD of Indospirits and others in the case.
The ED further alleged that Nair was not an ordinary worker of the AAP but a “close associate” of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The CBI had filed the FIR on August 17 this year based on a complaint received from Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, who flagged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy.
Besides Sisodia, the CBI has named 14 others, including three public servants – then excise commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna; then deputy excise commissioner Anand Tiwari and assistant commissioner (excise) Pankaj Bhatnagar.
Some private persons, including Nair, the AAP communication in-charge and former CEO of Mumbai-based Only Much Louder; Mahendru, MD of Indospirits; Manoj Rai, a former employee of Lucknow-based Pernod Ricard; Arora, director of Gurgaon-based Buddy Retail Private Limited; Dinesh Arora, Delhi-based Mahadev Liquors; Sunny Marwah, authorised signatory of Mahadev Liquors; Arun Ramchandra Pillai of Karnataka’s Bangalore and Arjun Pandey of Gurgaon, have also been named in the CBI FIR.