Delhi court sends BRS leader K Kavitha to ED custody till Mar 23

A Delhi court on Saturday sent BRS leader K Kavitha to ED custody till March 23 in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.Special Judge for ED cases M K Nagpal passed the order on an application of the federal anti-money laundering agency seeking her remand.The agency produced Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, before the special court, and sought her custody for 10 days. However, the court remanded her in ED custody only till March 23.In the arrest order, the concerned ED investigation officer said, "I believe that Kalvakuntla Kavitha, w/o DR Anil Kumar, residing in Hyderabad, Telengana-500034,has been guilty of an offence punishable under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (15 of 2003).
She was questioned three times in this case last year and the central agency recorded her statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The BRS MLC has asserted in the past that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP-led central government was "using" the ED as the BJP could not gain "backdoor entry" into Telangana. Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation had also questioned Kavitha in this case. The ED case of money laundering was filed with cognizance of the CBI FIR.
The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies said.