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| Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha (left), While party workers gather outside kcr residence (right) |
As a result, party workers and supporters have gathered outside KCR's residence in the national capital. On Friday, Kavitha launched a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, demanding the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill during the current Budget session of Parliament. She asked the probe agency to postpone her questioning until Saturday due to her hunger strike.
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Former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has already been arrested by the ED in the same case. Kavitha arrived in the national capital on March 8, hours after the ED issued a summons for questioning. BRS leader KT Rama Rao also arrived at his father's residence in Delhi on Friday.
According to sources, Kavitha will be questioned alongside Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who was arrested on Monday night in connection with the liquor policy case. The MLC has described the summons as "tactics of intimidation" by the Centre against KCR and the BRS, adding that the party will continue to fight and expose the Centre's failures and will raise its voice for a brighter and better future for India.
"On March 8, the BRS criticised the Centre after the ED summoned Kavitha in connection with its ongoing probe in the Delhi excise policy case, saying that the central probe agencies have become an extended arm of the BJP," said BRS leader Ravula Sridhar Reddy. He referred to the summons as "politically motivated," stating that except for the ED and the BJP, nobody really understands the case registered in connection with the new-withdrawn new Delhi excise policy.
During its investigation, the ED discovered that Pillai was one of the key persons in the entire scam involving payments of huge kickbacks and the formation of the biggest cartel of the South Group. The South Group comprises Kavitha, Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Group), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (MP, Ongole), his son Raghav Magunta, and others. The South Group was being represented by Pillai, Abhishek Boinpalli and Butchi Babu, the federal agency investigation has revealed.
Pillai, along with his associates, was coordinating with various individuals to execute the political understanding between the South Group and an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader. Pillai has been an accomplice and was involved in the kickbacks from the South Group and the recoupment of the same from the businesses in Delhi, the ED investigation has revealed. The ED had previously said that the South Group gave kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders.
Pillai is known to be a partner of 32.5% in Indo Spirits, which had obtained an L1 license. Indo Spirits is a partnership firm of Arun Pillai (32.5%), Prem Rahul (32.5%), and Indospirit Distribution Limited (35%), wherein Arun Pillai and Prem Rahul represented the benami investments of Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghava Magunta.
Kavitha, who is a member of the Telangana Legislative Council, was previously questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case in December last year.
(With input from agencies)
