The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, K Kavitha, at its office here on Friday for questioning in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
Earlier, Kavitha was questioned several times at the ED headquarters in March and had to submit her mobile phones to the agency for forensic examination.
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 paid bribes for it. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has strongly denied the charge.
The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi Lieutenant Governor had recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
As part of the probe, the ED had recorded the statement of Butchibabu, an accountant allegedly linked to Kavitha, in which he had said "there was political understanding between K Kavitha and the Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and Deputy Chief Minister (Manish Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021".
Kavitha has asserted that she has done no wrong and accused the BJP-led Centre of "using" the ED as the saffron party could not gain a "backdoor entry" into Telangana.
Kavitha on Thursday said the ED notice to her is politically motivated and the party's legal team would decide the future course of action on it.
Responding to queries on the notice, Kavitha, in a Press conference in Nizamabad, said using central agencies has been the modus operandi of BJP in any poll-bound State and since Telangana is going to polls, the same technique is being used.