According to ED, role played by a 'South Group' was revealed by businessman Amit Arora who was arrested on 29 November.
TRS MLC K Kavitha with supporters outside her residence in Hyderabad after the ED named her in an application in court related to the Delhi liquor scam. (Supplied)
TRS MLC and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashehar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Thursday, 1 December, dared the Narendra Modi government to put her in jail.
In her first brief reaction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) including her name in the “South Group” that allegedly paid ₹100 crore to Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Vijay Nair in the form of kickbacks in the infamous Delhi liquor scam, the TRS leader said: “Everyone knows that before Modi enters a state, it is the ED that precedes him. We have been seeing it happen all the time. Using ED and CBI after not only me, but our TRS MLAs and ministers, is a strategy of the BJP which is the most detestable and despicable genre of politics.”
The ED, while submitting the remand report after arresting businessman Amit Arora on 29 November in the Rouse Avenue District Court in Delhi, said that Vijay Nair, on behalf of AAP leaders, received kickbacks to the tune of at least ₹100 crore from the so-called “South Group”.
The “South Group”, according to ED, is controlled by Aurobindo Pharma’s Sarath Reddy, Kavitha and YSRCP MP Magunta Srinivasul Reddy, and Amit Arora himself.
Apparently rattled by her name figuring in the remand report, Kavitha, in an emotion-choked voice, lashed at Narendra Modi for pursuing politics of vendetta against his political rivals.
“What can you do? At the most you can put me in jail. You cannot do anything more than that. I am not afraid. Nothing will happen to me. Even if you harass me, I will not stop working for the people,” she said.
TRS MLC K Kavitha with supporters outside her residence in Hyderabad. (Supplied)
She said that she was law-abiding and would cooperate with any investigation agency.
“I will cooperate with the investigation agencies. Let them ask whatever questions they want to, and I will give answers,” she said and took the BJP to task for trying to tarnish the image of the leaders of its rivals by branding them as being involved in cams.
“This is a heinous practice. You keep giving leaks to the media and then register cases against your rivals to sully their image,” she said.
The ED, in its report, had said that about 36 persons who are in one way or the other connected with the scam had used and destroyed 170 telephones to wipe out evidence.
Of them, five persons from the two Telugu states destroyed 33 phones, the ED said.
Kavitha is said to have changed 10 phones, Sarath Reddy (9), Gorantla Buchibabu (6), Boinaplly Ashok (5), and Srijan Reddy (3). The ED alleged that by doing so, they had destroyed valuable digital evidence.
The ED said a 12 percent profit margin to the wholesalers was devised to extract half of it as kickbacks for the AAP leaders.
The Delhi excise policy was formulated with loopholes on purpose to facilitate manipulation with malafide intent, it has contended.
The policy, it said, paved the way for the formation of a cartel.
The Delhi liquor scam broke when Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe into suspected irregularities in the implementation of Delhi’s excise policy for the year 2021-22. Saxena also placed under suspension 11 excise officials.
ED sources had then said that Sarath Chandra Reddy was in direct control of five retail zones. And with other members of the cartel, controlled four zones.
This cartel effectively controlled 30 percent of the Delhi liquor market. He and others led a cartel that gave kickbacks of ₹100 crore through Vijay Nair, the ED sources had alleged.
Apr 27, 2024
Apr 27, 2024
Apr 27, 2024
Apr 27, 2024
Apr 27, 2024
Apr 27, 2024
