Hyderabad: In a major development that is likely to have political ramifications in Telangana state in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, from her house on charges of money laundering in the Delhi liquor scam case.
Kavitha, an accused in the liquor case, was picked up from her palatial bungalow in Banjara Hills at 6.30 pm after five hours of questioning. A visibly shaken Kavitha, who was comforted by her mother Shobha, husband D.R. Anil Kumar and children, came out of residence raising her fist and quickly got into a car.
She was taken on a regular flight to the national capital where she will be produced before the magistrate on Saturday. The ED will seek police custody for further questioning, it was learnt.
Contrary to expectations, her arrest and transport to Shamshabad International Airport turned out to be a smooth affair except for a few party activists squatting in front of her residence and raising slogans against the arrest. The city police chased them away, clearing the route for the ED’s convoy.
Friday’s development brought the curtains down on the uncertainty over her arrest that has lasted for more than a year and led to political slugfest among the three top political players – the BJP, Congress and the BRS. Each party accused the two others of entering into a tacit understanding with regard to the delay in Kavitha’s arrest.
The arrest also coincided with the road show of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city covering the largest Parliamentary constituency of Malkajgiri. On earlier occasions, the BRS leadership including working president K.T. Rama Rao dared the Prime Minister to arrest his party leaders.
The BJP, as its own leaders admitted, had to pay a heavy price in the Assembly polls for soft-peddling the Kavitha case. The Congress took full advantage of the delay and projected it as the BJP’s compromise with the BRS.
The slugfest continued even after Friday’s arrest with the Congress seeing in it a sinister design of the BJP to help the BRS recover from the poll debacle. TS BJP chief and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy opted for the law-will-take-its-own-course route. He gave a gag order to his partymen to not speak on the arrest which, he said, had nothing to do with the party.
On the other hand, Kavitha’s brother Rama Rao termed the arrest as part of tacit understanding between the BJP and the Congress. Rama Rao reached Kavitha’s residence along with close relative and former minister T. Harish Rao, sometime before she was moved out and picked up an argument with the ED officials.
Maintaining that the ED gave an undertaking to Supreme Court to not take coercive action, he warned the ED of serious trouble. He questioned the ED’s decision to take his sister to Delhi without a prisoner transit warrant.
While the ED officials maintained that due legal process was followed, Kavitha’s advocate P. Mohith Rao dashed off a letter stating that Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju gave an undertaking to the apex court on September 16, 2023, that no action would be taken, when the bench was about to pass a specific order of “protection/restraint.”
Further, he said the statement of the ASG was sought to be retracted on Friday when the matter was scheduled for final hearing on March 19. “However, the SC did not acknowledge the same,” he said adding that ED would be restrained from summoning or taking any coercive action.
In December 2022, the ED began Kavitha’s questioning in connection with alleged irregularities in obtaining licences for liquor outlets in the national capital by a cartel which included businessmen from the two Telugu states including “Aurobindo” Sharat Chandra Reddy and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy.
Around 1.45 pm on Friday, a team of ED officials — assistant directors Jogender and Sumit Goyal and deputy director Bhanupriya Meena and others, who arrived from Delhi — went to Kavitha’s residence in Banjara Hills.
During the search, they recorded the voluntary statement of Kavitha under Section 17 of the PMLA and seized five mobile phones. In the arrest panchanama, the ED officials stated that around 6 pm, a few persons who claimed themselves as brother of Kavitha, lawyers and another 20 persons entered the premises unlawfully. On being asked, they did not show their identity. A ruckus was created which delayed the proceedings.
Rama Rao recorded a video from a phone questioning the ED and released it to media. ED deputy director Bhanupriya Meena was seen making a official record a video but had to stop it when Rama Rao videobombed her.
Assistant director Jogender issued the arrest order for an offence punishable under the provision of PMLA.
