Kavitha tells the CBI that her name is mentioned neither in its FIR in the Delhi liquor scam, nor in the MHA's complaint.
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 Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha is playing hard to get with the CBI.
In a letter to the national investigation agency on Monday, 5 December, she has said that she would be free to see them on 11, 12, 14, or 15 December and expressed her inability to meet them on 6 December, as they had suggested earlier, because of her busy schedule.
The CBI first sent a notice to her on Friday under section 160 of the CrPC, requesting her to make herself available on 6 December as a witness to answer their queries about the Delhi lIquor scam. The same day, she replied to the CBI that she would see them at her house in Hyderabad on the appointed date.
But the next day — Saturday — Kavitha sent another mail to the CBI, asking for copies of the FIR and the complaint lodged by the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the Delhi liquor scam.
In the letter, Kavitha also said that she would peruse the complaint and then intimate them when they could meet her at her residence in Hyderabad.
She is understood to have changed tack after consulting her father and Chief Minister KCR earlier on that day.
The CBI then replied to Kavitha that the FIR and the MHA complaint were available on the CBI’s website for her to go through them.
Kavitha, in her latest reply on Monday, said that she had gone through the contents of the FIR and the complaint lodged with the CBI by the Ministry of Home Affairs and found that her name was not mentioned anywhere in any manner in either of the documents.
She stressed, however, that she was a law abiding citizen and would cooperate with the investigation.
“As suggested by you, I am not in a position to meet on 6th December, 2022, because of my preoccupied schedule,” she wrote.
“I will be able to meet you on 11th, 12th or 14th, 15th of this month, whichever is convenient to you.”
She also made it clear that it was without any prejudice to her legal rights available under the law.
In her letter, Kavitha made it amply clear that she is not wanted by the CBI by saying that her name does not figure in either of the documents, and that she knew her legal rights — obviously to preclude any attempt by the premier investigation agency to include her name in any manner in the scam.
The CBI, as of now, can only go by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s remand report submitted to the Rouse Avenue District Court, Delhi, while producing Amit Arora, one of the accused in the case.
In the report, the ED had alleged that Kavitha was part of what it called the “South Group” that had paid Vijay Nair of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ₹100 crore in kickbacks.
“As per the investigation carried out so far, Vijay Nair, on behalf of leaders of AAP, has received kickbacks to the tune of at least ₹100 crore from a group, called South Group (controlled by Sarath Reddy, Ms K Kavitha, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy) by various persons including Amit Arora,” the ED had said in the remand report.
In the same report, the ED had said that she had changed her phones several times and destroyed them, by which action, the ED could not access the data on them which may have been helpful to them in taking the investigation forward.
The CBI is understood to have given her notice under section 160 since it does not have anything on its records against Kavitha except the ED’s document, which at the most could help the CBI question her as a witness.
Kavitha, apparently on KCR’s advice, worded her letter to the CBI in such a way to let the CBI know that they have nothing against her and that she would be doing a favour to the agency by meeting them and answering their questions.
In fact, in her Monday letter, too, Kavitha has tried to show the CBI its place by telling the agency that she was too busy to see its officers on 6 December, and suggesting alternative days.
It remains to be seen what turn the CBI investigation will take, going forward.
