New Delhi/Hyderabad: After nearly nine long hours of questioning, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) senior leader and MLC K Kavitha was finally let-off by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday. However, her phone continues to remain in ED’s custody.
The daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) will appear before the ED next on March 16, sources said.
The questioning took place in the national capital after the central investigative agency summoned the BRS leader on Wednesday in connection with the Delhi liquor excise scam. A day earlier on Friday, she staged a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the women’s reservation bill.
According to sources, Kavitha was made to sit face-to-face with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who was also arrested in the same case. Pillai is one of the alleged key persons in the entire scam involving payments of huge kickbacks and the formation of the biggest cartel of the ‘South Group’.
South Group, according to the investigation, comprises Telangana MLC Kavitha, Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Group), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (MP, Ongole), his son Raghav Magunta, and others. The South Group was being represented by Pillai, Abhishek Boinpalli and Butchi Babu, the federal agency revealed.
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Pillai along with his associates was reportedly coordinating with various persons to execute the political understanding between the South Group and a leader of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Pillai has been an accomplice and was involved in the kickbacks from the South Group and the recoupment of the same from the businesses in Delhi, ED investigation reveals.
Pillai is learnt to be a partner of 32.5 percent in Indo Spirits, which had got an L1 license. Indo Spirits is a partnership firm of Arun Pillai (32.5 percent), Prem Rahul (32.5 percent) and Indospirit Distribution Limited (35 percent), wherein Arun Pillai and Prem Rahul represented the benami investments of Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghava Magunta.
Kavitha, who is a member of the Telangana Legislative Council, was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case in December last year.
