K Kavitha skips ED summons, alleges phone was seized, privacy breached; 'Not running away'

BRS leader K Kavitha skipped the summons issued to her by the Enforcement Directorate to depose before the agency today in the Delhi Liquor scam case. She also issued a statement and said her phone was seized and her privacy was also breached. The BRS MLC Kavitha however stated she was available for questioning at her residence.

She said, “I am a people’s representative. It is breach of my privacy. My phone was seized. If ED wants to question I am available at my residence and I am not running away from it (Sic).”

It's important to note the Supreme Court will hear the case on March 24. Notably, the agency, after questioning the BRS leader for 9 hours on March 11, asked her to appear for further questioning in the case on March 16. 

Notably, security deployment near K Kavitha’s house ahead of the ED interrogation was enhanced on Thursday. Kavitha was interrogated by the ED in connection to the claims made by Pillai on March 11 and was summoned to appear before the agency today.  

Kavitha’s aide summoned by ED

Notably in another development in the case, the former auditor of BRS leader Kavitha, Buchi Babu Gorantla, was summoned again by the ED after he skipped summons by the agency on March 9.

In the case, a court in Delhi extended Hyderabad based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai’s ED custody by three more days, "It is crucial to interrogate Pillai in ED custody while confronting him with the hotel records so as to investigate the link between South Group (represented by Pillai, Butchibabu and another arrested accused in the case Abhishek Boinpally) and Vijay Nair/GoM (headed by former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia) at the time of policy formulation," it said.

Communication strategist of the Aam Aadmi Party Vijay Nair has also been arrested in the case. 

ED allegations against K Kavitha

The central agency has alleged the Liquor cartel, known as ‘South Group’ linked to the BRS MLC K Kavitha had paid kickbacks amounting to about Rs 100 crore to AAP to procure more liquor business in the national capital under the now scrapped new excise policy 2020-21.

The "South Group", according to the ED, comprises of Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Pharma), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (YSR Congress MP from the Ongole Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh), his son Raghav Magunta, Kavitha and others.

Image: ANI