‘Fundamental law for women...’: Kavitha targets ED over Delhi excise case

K Kavitha alleged that the central government was ‘using’ the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not get a back-door entry in Telangana

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC, K Kavitha on Thursday hit out at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after she was summoned over her alleged involvement in the Delhi excise policy case, accusing the agency of violating “a fundamental law for women”. She also alleged that the central government was ‘using’ the ED as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not get a back-door entry in Telangana.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC, K Kavitha. (Shrikant Singh)

“I had requested the ED to postpone my summon till March 16 in view of the proposed dharna in Delhi on March 10 in support of the women’s reservation bill but I don’t know why they (ED) are rushing with the Delhi Excise police investigations. Whenever an investigative agency needs to interrogate a woman, it can come to her house to interrogate and that is a fundamental law for women. Similarly, I had urged the ED to come to my home with an accused if it (ED) had the urgency to investigate me on March 11 but still the ED denied to do,’’ Kavitha said at a press conference in Delhi.

She is in the national Capital for the ‘dharna’, demanding the BJP government to introduce and pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament.

Kavitha further said that her party will take up this issue to the Supreme Court and will propose a “revolutionary scheme” in India so that if any police or agency wants to interrogate a woman, they can do so through video conferencing. “This is not about me but for every common woman of this country,” she added.

She has been called by the ED so that she can be confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramachandran Pillai, an alleged front man of the “south group”, who was arrested by the ED on Monday in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case.

She will be appearing before the ED on Saturday and the agency will record her statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during this confrontation.

Pillai is in ED custody and the agency had earlier said he “represented the south group”, an alleged liquor cartel linked to Kavitha and others.

The ED has Pillai’s custody till March 12 (to be again produced before a Delhi court on March 13) and if Kavitha skips the date on Thursday, the agency may give her a fresh date within the custody period of Pillai.

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

It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers, who had allegedly paid bribes for it-- a charge strongly refuted by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The policy was later scrapped and Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a Central Bureau of Investigaton (CBI) probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.

Kavitha alleged that there were “tactics of intimidation” against the fight of her father KCR, and that the BRS would not be deterred by them.

She, however, added that she will cooperate with the ED as she “understood the obligation of the government and agencies”.

She said from last June, the government had been constantly sending agencies to Telangana. She claimed that this was a pattern that was seen being used by the BJP in nine states where they have used agencies and tried backdoor entry to win elections, but could not succeed in Telangana.

“This is because Telangana assembly polls are scheduled in November/December and wherever elections are approaching, ED arrives before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and this has been the modus operandi of the BJP. Above 500 business houses have been raided by the IT (Income Tax) department, CBI has conducted over 100 raids, ED has at least raided 200 locations across Telangana and NIA (National Investigation Agency) has threatened almost 500-600 people in the state. 15-16 BRS MLAs too have been targeted and interrogated,” she alleged.

Kavitha also alleged that the Modi government is not paying much attention to the Adani issues and is instead attacking the ones who were not “his friends”.

“ED, SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), SBI (state Bank of India), LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India) directors get their terms extended after retirement but I want to ask the BJP to extend the terms of the Agniveers. For four years they will be trained and then they will be left in the streets. Joining an army is a sentimental issue, so I urge the government to extend the terms of the engineers as there are above 4 lakh vacancies in army posts,” Kavitha added.

There was no immediate reaction from the BJP.

Major opposition parties and women’s organisations from across the country took part in the rally in Delhi on Thursday and Kavitha accorded a special thanks to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi for bringing the Women’s Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha back in 2010, saying, it, “or else would have been left in the cold storage.”