K Kavitha’s brother gets arrest warrant, opposes action by probe agency

Hyderabad:

The arrest of BJP’s K Kavitha on Friday night in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case triggered a dramatic confrontation between her brother, senior BRS leader KT Rama Rao and the team of Enforcement Directorate officials who detained Ms Kavitha.

A video shot by K Kavitha at his house in Hyderabad shows Mr Rama Rao (KTR) having a heated altercation with ED officials. In the video, he claimed that agency officials did not have the required transit order to shift former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter Ms Kavitha to Delhi.

“Ms. Bhanu Priya Meena said searches have been done (and) arrest warrants have been issued but they don’t have transit warrants. Now she says family members can’t come in?” KTR asked ED officials.

“So you can’t bring her before a magistrate. How can you open a case?”

Read | K Kavitha of BRS arrested by ED in Delhi liquor policy case

A transit order or transit remand is an order from a judicial magistrate assigning an arrested person to police custody before they can legally cross state lines.

Sources told NDTV that Ms Kavitha will now be brought to Delhi for further interrogation.

official arrest documents #kavithaarrest@ndtv@ndtvindiapic.twitter.com/ZLfJk4kf1b

— Uma Sudhir (@umasudhir) March 15, 2024

The 43-second video from K Kavitha’s house also shows KTR (and his aides) and the investigation agency team going head-to-head, with both parties filming the confrontation and trying to shout over each other.

At one point in the video, Ms. Mina (the woman in the yellow shirt) shouts to a man who is filming the confrontation, “How did you get in? How did they get in? Ask them this question…”

To this, a KTR employee retorted: “Ma’am, the door is open…the door is open.”

Read | BRS leader K Kavitha’s house raided in Delhi liquor policy case

The spat between KTR and ED officials also included warnings of violation of Supreme Court orders; “You are in serious trouble (for violating the terms of the undertaking given to the Supreme Court),” the former Telangana minister claimed To which agency officials responded, “You have legal remedies.”

The education ministry alleged that K Kavitha was part of a “Southern syndicate” that paid bribes to Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party to obtain liquor licenses under the now-defunct liquor excise policy. The ‘South Organization’ has been accused of paying a bribe of Rs 100 crore, which ED claimed was used by the AAP for election campaigns.

She was questioned twice in the case, in 2022 and 2023, but has skipped summons from the ED and CBI several times since then. She also moved the Supreme Court claiming that the central agency cannot summon a woman accused to appear before the office.

Read | ‘No logic’: K Kavitha on CBI liquor policy case summons

Ms Kavitha has previously denied all the allegations against her and accused the BJP of targeting her for political gain through the education ministry. Her arrest tonight comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Telangana state for a major promotional event ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where he will hold a road show.

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