K Kavitha produced in court in Delhi excise policy scam; claims case is ‘political laundering’

NEW DELHI: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha, who is currently in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam, on Tuesday said that the case against her is not a money laundering case, but one of “political laundering”.

Kavitha was produced before the Rouse Avenue Court on Tuesday at the end of her ED custody in Delhi excise policy money laundering case. “This is not a money laundering case but a political laundering case. It is a fabricated and false case. One accused has joined BJP, the second accused is getting a BJP ticket and the third accused has given 50 crore in electoral bonds. This is a political laundering case, we will come out clean”, she claimed.

#WATCH | Delhi | BRS leader K Kavitha brought to Rouse Avenue court at the end of her ED custody in Delhi excise policy money laundering case, she says, "This is not a money laundering case but a political laundering case. It is a fabricated and false case. We will come out… pic.twitter.com/HEKN6hQsrB

— ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2024

The ED on Tuesday moved an application before Rouse Avenue Court seeking court direction to send Kavitha to judicial custody. The probe agency, stated before Rouse Avenue Court that during her remand period, they recorded her statement, interrogated her, and confronted her with several individuals and digital records.

Kavitha, a Telangana Member of Legislative Council (MLC) and the daughter of former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, was arrested in Hyderabad on March 15 and remanded to ED custody a day later. She was arrested after a search operation was conducted at Kavitha’s residence in Hyderabad on the same day.

Earlier, the Supreme Court refused to entertain K Kavitha’s bail plea in the Delhi excise policy case and asked her to move the trial court with the direction that the bail application filed would be decided expeditiously. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh, and Bela M. Trivedi remarked that it has to follow a uniform policy for all and can’t allow people to approach the top court directly for bail as they are political people.

Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate claimed that BRS MLC K Kavitha allegedly conspired with the top leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia to get favours in the Delhi Excise policy formulation and implementation, and she was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to the AAP leaders in exchange for these favours.

The case arose out of a report submitted by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022, pointing to alleged procedural lapses in the formulation of the policy. The report said “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” taken by Sisodia in his capacity as Excise Minister had resulted in “financial losses to the exchequer” estimated at more than Rs 580 crore. This report was referred to the CBI, and led to Sisodia’s arrest.

The ED alleged that the “scam” was to give the wholesale liquor business to private entities and fix a 12 per cent margin, for a 6 per cent kickback. In its first prosecution complaint in November 2021, the ED said the policy was “formulated with deliberate loopholes” that “promoted cartel formations through the back door” to benefit AAP leaders.

The ED also alleged that AAP leaders received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group of individuals identified as the “South Group”. Kavitha has been arrested allegedly for being part of this ‘South Group’.

Meanwhile, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was last Friday remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for seven days, i.e., till March 28, a day after he was arrested by the probe agency in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case. (ANI)