KCR’s Daughter’s Auditor Summoned For Questioning In Delhi Liquor Policy Case

K Kavitha was questioned by the ED on Saturday in the Delhi liquor policy case

New Delhi:

The auditor of Telangana’s ruling party leader K Kavitha has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in the Delhi liquor policy case.

Buchi Babu, who audits the accounts of Ms Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has been told to come to the central agency’s office on March 15, a day before Ms Kavitha’s second questioning in the case. She was questioned for the first time on March 11 in the Delhi liquor policy case.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who faces corruption allegations in framing the liquor policy to favour a certain “south group”, is already under arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). His bail request in the CBI case is scheduled to be heard in a special court on March 21.

A key focus of the investigation into the Delhi liquor policy case is on an alleged network of middlemen, businessmen and politicians which the central agencies have called the “south group”. The investigators have linked Ms Kavitha with this group, and by extension her auditor.

Since K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, is a key opposition leader in the centre, this has led to allegations against the BJP-led centre of using central agencies to harass opposition leaders with false cases.

Ms Kavitha, 44, has said the BJP is trying to “intimidate my leader”, referring to her Chief Minister father who is hoping for a third consecutive term in power in Telangana, where assembly elections are due in a few months.

“In India, there’s no difference between Enforcement Directorate summons and (Narendra) Modi’s summons… It is a practice now wherever there’s an election, before PM, the Enforcement Directorate comes. What can the opposition do? Go to people’s court or the Supreme Court,” Ms Kavitha told NDTV on Friday, a day before she was questioned by the ED in Delhi.

Mr Sisodia’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has denied taking bribe from anyone, whether traders or politicians, in framing the Delhi liquor policy. His lawyer during the last court hearing said the Delhi Lieutenant Governor, too, had cleared the new liquor policy file, and so he should be summoned for questioning.

The BJP has said the AAP would not have withdrawn the liquor policy if it was confident of not having done anything wrong.