Hyderabad/New Delhi:

In a significant improvement within the Delhi liquor coverage case, BRS chief Okay Kavitha has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in Hyderabad and is being taken to Delhi, high officers have informed NDTV. 

Ms Kavitha is a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) in Telangana and the daughter of Bharat Rashtra Samithi chief and former chief minister Okay Chandrashekar Rao. She was questioned within the case final yr, however had skipped two summons this yr. 

The arrest, hours after her home was raided by the company, comes weeks forward of the Lok Sabha polls and on a day that the Congress authorities in Telangana completes 100 days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi additionally held a roadshow within the Hyderabad suburb of Malkajgiri on Friday.

The Supreme Court, which had granted the BRS chief immunity from interrogation until Wednesday,  additionally heard her petition towards the company’s summons within the case on Friday. The subsequent listening to within the case shall be on Tuesday. 

In a video, Ms Kavitha’s brother and former Telangana minister KT Rama Rao will be seen confronting ED officers after he was requested how relations had entered the home.

Speaking to the digicam, he names an official of the company, holds up a doc, and says, “Search is over and an arrest warrant is produced, and now she says family cannot come in. She also says that she has no transit warrant, she cannot produce before a magistrate but she wants to make the case (sic).”

Mr Rao goes on to accuse the officers of violating an enterprise the company had given to the Supreme Court and says, “You are in serious trouble”. An ED official is heard telling him that authorized cures can be found.

ED sources informed NDTV that Mr Rao and different BRS members had been obstructing the company and movies additionally confirmed the company’s vehicles being surrounded after they had been leaving with Ms Kavitha. 

Mr Rao has, nevertheless, claimed the household is cooperating with the company. Terming the protest unlawful, he mentioned he and different senior leaders have requested celebration staff to stay peaceable and never stop the arrest.

The ED’s Case

The Enforcement Directorate has claimed that Ms Kavitha was a part of a foyer known as the ‘South Group’, which performed a key function within the alleged Delhi liquor coverage rip-off. The different members of the group, in keeping with the company, had been Hyderabad businessman Sarath Reddy, YSR Congress Party MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy and his son Raghav Magunta Reddy. Sarath Reddy and Raghav Reddy have turned approvers within the case.

The company has mentioned that the group was represented of their dealings by businessmen Arun Pillai and Abhishek Boinpally, and a chartered accountant, Buchi Babu.

According to the ED, the Delhi liquor coverage of 2021-22 offered an exceptionally excessive revenue margin of 12% for wholesalers and almost 185% for retailers. Of the 12%, six was to be recovered from wholesalers as kickbacks for AAP leaders and the South Group allegedly gave Rs 100 crore upfront to a different accused, Vijay Nair, who was linked to the ruling celebration in Delhi.

In change, Nair allegedly promised the South Group a stake within the Delhi liquor enterprise. Officials mentioned the group was allowed to carry extra retail licences than had been permitted beneath the coverage, and was additionally given different undue advantages.

One of the entities linked to the group was Indospirit, whose MD was Sameer Mahendru. Arun Pillai and Prem Rahul Manduri, one other individual linked to the group, had a 65% stake within the firm, and Kavitha and the Reddys had been companions by way of proxies, officers mentioned.

They claimed Vijay Nair had requested Mahendru to offer a stake within the firm to Pillai and Manduri. In change, Indospirit was promised the wholesale enterprise of Pernod Ricard, one of many largest liquor producers, which has manufacturers like Chivas Regal, Absolut and Jameson.

Nair, officers claimed, was engaged on behalf of then Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia – who’s now in jail within the case – and Pillai has allegedly admitted to being Ms Kavitha’s consultant in Indospirit.

During questioning, Buchi Babu allegedly admitted that the full quantity paid by hawala channels on this deal was round Rs 100 crore.

The officers alleged Kavitha used a minimum of 10 telephones between 2021 and 2022 to keep away from leaving a digital path. The ED has claimed she was an energetic participant within the rip-off and helped Pillai, Babu and others work out easy methods to conduct unlawful enterprise dealings.

Agency Summons

Ms Kavitha had been questioned in 2022 and 2023, however had not appeared after being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in January this yr and by the CBI in February.

The BRS chief has mentioned previously that she had accomplished nothing unlawful, and accused the BJP of utilizing the ED for political positive factors. The Congress, then again, had claimed that the BJP was going straightforward on Ms Kavitha earlier than the Telangana Assembly elections final yr, hinting at an understanding between the events.

Charges of misusing the central companies have been levelled towards the BJP by a number of opposition events, together with the AAP. Two AAP leaders – Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh – are already in jail in reference to the case whereas Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is beneath the ED’s lens and has skipped a number of summons.