A notice was issued to her by the ED to appear in person or depute somebody when they open the surrendered phones.
Images of BRS MLC K Kavitha flashing her phones to the media before appearing for ED questioning (Twitter)
BRS MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla has deputed party legal cell general secretary Soma Bharat to represent her before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi on Tuesday, 28 March, when officials open the mobile phones that she had surrendered to them recently.
A notice was issued to her by the ED in connection with her alleged role in the Delhi Liquor scam to appear in person or depute somebody when they open the phones.
As Kavitha is in Hyderabad, she sent Soma Bharat on her behalf.
The ED joint director will open the mobile phones in the presence of Kavitha’s representative to examine the data in them.
Following accusations that she damaged mobile phones and allegedly tampered with the evidence in the scam, Kavitha attended the ED questioning at the office in New Delhi on 21 March with the mobile phones she had used earlier.
The ED, which is probing the money laundering charges in the case, questioned her for over 10 hours.
Carrying mobile phones in two separate polythene covers, Kavitha came out of the residence of her father and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s house on Tughlaq Road in New Delhi on 21 March and flashed it to the media.
Kavitha has now been questioned by the ED at its Delhi headquarters three times — on 11, 16 and 21 March — for a total of almost 30 hours.
Following this, she went to the ED office at Pravartan Bhavan on APJ Abdul Kalam Road with an escort car provided by the police.
Since the ED mentioned the mobile phone numbers of Kavitha in the remand reports of a few other persons —who were earlier arrested by it for their alleged role in the scam — she was reportedly asked to carry the mobile phones with her to hand them over to the investigators.
On their part, the ED has also verified the previous mobile phones used by Kavitha with the help of experts, to retrieve the data. It already examined the data in the existing phone used by Kavitha.
The investigators decoded the WhatsApp chats of the persons arrested in the case earlier.
In an application filed by the ED in a Delhi court on 30 November last year, seeking 14 days custody of businessman Amit Arora, the investigation agency named Kavitha, YSRCP MP Magunta Srinivasul Reddy, and a leading pharma company director Sarath Reddy as people controlling what it called the ‘South Group’ which paid ₹100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Vijay Nair in the form of kickbacks.
According to ED, they were represented by businessman Arun Ramachandra Pillai — apart from Hyderabad businessman Abhishek Boinpally, and chartered accountant (CA) Butchibabu Gorantla.
The ED said the main arm of the entire Delhi liquor scam rests on the conspiracy orchestrated by the ‘South Group’, with the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
On 7 February, the CBI which is also investigating the case arrested Butchibabu Gorantla, said to be the ex-CA of BRS MLC K Kavitha.
The ED sought and obtained permission from the court to grill Buchbabu, who is currently out on bail, in judicial custody.
When the ED arrested the former CA of Kavitha, it sent shockwaves as many feared that the ED was trying to build a case to reach Kavitha.
The ED summoned Kavitha Kalvakuntla to appear before it in New Delhi on 9 March. However, she appeared before it on 11 March citing some inconveniences.
On 11 March, grilled Kavitha, amid protests in Hyderabad and Delhi, a day after she held a massive protest along with Opposition parties demanding early passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill.
On 20 March, ED sleuths grilled Kavitha for close to 10 hours.
They are said to have rained questions on her about her alleged involvement in the scam and the ₹100 crore in kickbacks paid to the AAP media in-charge and former Delhi deputy chief minister Sisodia’s representative Vijay Nair, and how she was associated with the company IndoSpirits of Sameer Mahendru.
She was grilled for the third time, that too for almost 10 hours, on 21 March.
According to sources, the ED officials examined the mobile phones that Kavitha submitted to them, saying that they were the ones that she had been using.
She submitted the phones to nix the officials’ claims that she had obliterated the data on 10 mobile phones she used to cover her tracks in the case.
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