ED summons Telangana CM KCR's daughter K Kavitha in Delhi excise policy case
1 min read . Updated: 08 Mar 2023, 10:10 AM IST
PremiumBharatiya Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) MLC Kavitha is learnt to be asked to depose before the instigators here at ED headquarters and record her statement.
K Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record her statement on Thursday regarding the Delhi excise policy case. She is expected to appear before the investigators at the ED headquarters and be confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who was arrested earlier this week.
The ED has discovered that Pillai is a key person in the scam, involving payments of huge kickbacks and the formation of the biggest cartel of the South Group. The South Group includes Kavitha, among others, and was represented by Pillai, Abhishek Boinpalli, and Butchi Babu.
According to the ED investigation, Pillai was involved in the kickbacks from the South Group and the recoupment of the same from businesses in Delhi. The agency had earlier revealed that the South Group gave kickbacks of ₹100 crore to AAP leaders.
Indo Spirits, a partnership firm, is owned by Arun Pillai, Prem Rahul, and Indospirit Distribution Limited. Arun Pillai and Prem Rahul represented the benami investments of Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghava Magunta.
Kavitha had already been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in December 2022 in the same case. The ED had filed its first chargesheet in the case last year and has so far undertaken nearly 200 search operations.
The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced, and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.
The Excise Department had decided to refund the Earnest Money Deposit of about ₹30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules, and a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19, causing an alleged loss of ₹144.36 crore to the exchequer.
(With agency inputs)