No stay on ED summons issued to BRS leader K Kavitha

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Telangana CM's daughter K Kavita's plea challenging the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the liquor policy case.

A bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi has also tagged her plea, which said that a woman can't be summoned for questioning before ED in office and that her questioning should take place at her residence, with other similar petitions, according to a report in The Times of India.

The matter has been posted for further hearing after three weeks.

On March 15, the top court agreed to hear her plea seeking protection from arrest and challenging the summons issued by the ED. On March 11, the 44-year-old BRS leader deposed before the ED to record her statement and was summoned again on March 16 for questioning.

She was last quizzed for about 10 hours on March 21, which was her third day of deposition before the Enforcement Directorate. However, the BRS leader has denied all allegations against her.

The ED had confronted Kavitha with the statements by Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, who has been arrested in the case, apart from those of a few others allegedly involved in the case, official sources had informed the PTI.

Her statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED has so far arrested 12 people in the case, including former Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia.

It has recorded the statement of Butchi Babu, a chartered accountant allegedly linked to Kavitha, where he said "there was a political understanding between K Kavitha and the chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and the deputy chief minister (Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021."

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 recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered the case under the PMLA.