Kavitha skips ED summons, seeks fresh dates

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday issued fresh summons to K Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister and Bharath Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Chandrasekhar Rao for questioning on March 20 after she skipped the agency’s summons for questioning on Thursday.

The ED has asked Kavitha to appear before the Investigating Officer (IO) on March 20 in connection with the alleged excise policy case, in which Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has been arrested

The ED had asked Kavitha, who is also a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) from Telangana to appear before it on Thursday. It may be noted that on March 11, the ED had questioned the BRS leader for over nine 9hrs in connection with the case.

Kavitha, who was supposed to appear before the ED on Thursday, sent her representatives asking for a fresh date. She skipped the ED summons citing her pending plea before the Supreme Court where she has sought protection from arrest and quashing of summons in the case.

She sent her authorised representative (a BRS party office bearer) who handed over a six-page representation against her deposition along with her bank statement, personal and business details to the concerned IO of the case.

In the letter sent to the ED, the BRS leader said that as the summons explicitly do not require her to appear in person and she was sending her “authorised representative.”

“I humbly beseech your good self that the proceedings before the Supreme Court being sacred and sacrosanct, the outcome thereof must be awaited before any further proceedings take place with respect to the subject summons,” she wrote in the communique sent via an emissary.

It may be noted that the Supreme Court on Wednesday had agreed to hear the plea by Kavitha seeking protection from arrest and challenging the summons by the ED in this case. The plea will be heard by the top court on March 24.

The ED has so far arrested 12 people in the case, including Sisodia. The agency also recorded the fresh statement of Kavitha’s former auditor Butchibabu Gorantla on Wednesday in this case.

It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.