The premier investigation agency asked BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter to appear before it at its headquarters in Delhi.
K Kavitha after her third day of ED questioning on Tuesday, 21 March, 2023. (Supplied)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned BRS MLC K Kavitha to appear before its officials on 26 February in connection with the infamous Delhi liquor policy case.
The premier investigation agency asked her to appear before it at its headquarters in Delhi.
Kavitha is the daughter of BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao, and has been under the scanner of central probe agencies for quite some time in connection with the case.
The issue of the notice to Kavitha assumed significance in the wake of reports that the Lok Sabha election schedule would be out any day after 9 March.
KCR’s party rebranded itself from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in October 2022 — getting formal approval from the Election Commission of India for the change in December that year — to showcase its national ambitions, something it would have expected to fulfil in the Lok Sabha elections.
Interestingly, the issue of summons has taken place against the backdrop of the BRS losing the Assembly elections held on 30 November, 2023.
The investigation agency chose to examine her once again in the case after a gap of more than a year. The last time the CBI examined her was in December 2022.
The CBI then described her as a witness in the case and spent long hours recording her statement at her Jubilee Hills residence in Hyderabad.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is also probing the case, examined her several times — both in Hyderabad and Delhi.
As the ED had been calling her repeatedly to its Delhi office, she filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking relief to her, so she might be examined at her residence since she was a woman. She also quoted the relevant law in support of her claim.
When the CBI grilled her in December 2022, they recorded her statements on her alleged role in the Delhi liquor scam and why she had changed her mobile phones at frequent intervals.
The officials suspected that those involved in the case changed the mobile phones to destroy the evidence on them.
The CBI reportedly quizzed her after the ED. It said in a remand copy submitted before a Delhi court earlier that she changed her phones too frequently during the period the scam purportedly occurred.
The ED in its remand report pointed out that one of the accused in the case, Vijay Nair, received ₹100 crore on behalf of the AAP from the so-called South Group, which was allegedly controlled by Sarath Reddy, K Kavitha, and Magunta Srinivasul Reddy.
(With PTI inputs)
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