Excise case: ED rejects deferment plea, summons Kavitha on Monday

The federal anti-money laundering agency also issued summons to YSR Congress Party leader and Lok Sabha member Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy for March 18

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday rejected Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha’s request to defer proceedings against her in connection with a money laundering investigation that is connected to alleged irregularities in Delhi’s 2021-22 excise policy, and issued fresh summons to the Telangana MLC for March 20, people familiar with the development said on Thursday.

K Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was questioned by the federal agency in connection with the case on March 11. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

The federal anti-money laundering agency also issued summons to YSR Congress Party leader and Lok Sabha member Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy for March 18, officials said. His son Raghav Magunta Reddy was arrested by the ED on February 11, and it has been alleged that the father-son duo was part of an alleged “South Group”, an alleged liquor cartel which benefited from the excise policy.

Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was questioned by the federal agency in connection with the case on March 11, and the BRS leader was supposed to appear before ED sleuths again on Thursday.

However, Kavitha sent her authorised representative to the investigating officer with a six-page petition, saying she was skipping the summons as they explicitly do not require her to appear in person. She also asked that the proceedings be deferred till the Supreme Court decides on her plea seeking protection.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had agreed to hear on March 24 Kavitha’s plea seeking protection from arrest and challenging the summons issued against her by the ED.

“I humbly beseech your good self that the proceedings before the Supreme Court being sacred and sacrosanct, the outcome thereof must be awaited before any further proceedings take place with respect to the subject summons. I once again request your good self that you may please defer the proceedings awaiting appropriate order(s) or direction(s) by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” she wrote in her letter to the investigating officer.

A senior official familiar with the development said, “Kavitha’s request for halting proceedings against her has been rejected by the probe team as the probe is in crucial stage and she needs to be confronted with key statements and other accused persons.”

In her letter, Kavitha said her deposition on March 11 may not have the sanctity of law, and that her expectation of a free, fair, or impartial inquiry or investigation had been “severely impaired”.

She also expressed “surprise and shock” that her phone was impounded by ED on Saturday, and that she was not physically confronted with any of the arrested accused, despite the agency’s earlier categoric assertion for the same.

“I, therefore, have reasons to believe and a grave apprehension that the enquiry/investigation being carried out may not have the sanctity of law and my expectation of a free, fair, or impartial enquiry or investigation has been severely impaired,” she wrote.

During her questioning on March 11, Kavitha had been confronted with statements made by Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, an arrested accused in the case who allegedly shares close ties with her, apart from those of a few others involved in the case.

Pillai, the federal agency has said, represented the South Group, that paid kickbacks amounting to about ₹100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to gain a larger share of the liquor market in the national capital under the now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy.

ED has also alleged in Pillai’s remand papers that he “represented the benami investments” of Kavitha in the case.