NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) issued fresh summons to K Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) lawmaker and daughter of the Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, to appear before it on Monday (March 20) for questioning in the Delhi excise policy scam, hours after she failed to turn up on Thursday, citing her petition pending before the Supreme Court on the matter.
Kavitha, who had appeared in person on March 11, sent a letter and her legal team with documents to the ED office this time on her advocates’ advice. When she moved the SC on Wednesday, the court listed it for March 24 without giving her any interim relief.
In the wake of her skipping the summons, a special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court extended the custodial remand of Arun Ramachandran Pillai, a key accused alleged to be closely associated with Kavitha in the scam.
Sisodia’s custody ends today
The ED was to confront her with Pillai among other accused and witnesses in custody. Besides, the ED custody of Delhi’s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia ends on Friday.In her letter, Kavitha said she was not physically confronted with any of the arrested accused when she appeared on March 11 despite the ED categorically assuring that was the purpose for her summoning. Pillai was the frontman of the South Group cartel that allegedly included Kavitha. The cartel was the direct beneficiary of the Delhi scam. Pillai is the 32.5% owner of an entity that benefitted from the excise scam. He claimed Kavitha was a major stakeholder in that entity.
KTR, Harish return
While ministers KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao had accompanied Kavitha to Delhi on directions of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, they returned to Hyderabad on Thursday