HYDERABAD, MARCH 15: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in connection with the Delhi liquor scam.
Sources said she is being taken to Delhi for further questioning.
The development comes on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the city, conducting a road show in the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat.
Meanwhile, members of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) gathered outside Kavitha’s residence and shouted slogans against Modi. Senior BRS leaders K T Rama Rao and T Harish Rao also reached her residence.
Earlier in the day, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at Kavitha’s Banjara Hills residence. The ED teams from Delhi arrived at her doorstep around lunch hour. The raids also come on the eve of the announcement of the poll schedule.
The Congress had cornered the BJP in the past accusing it of working out a deal with the BRS and pointing out that though most of the AAP leaders named in the case were incarcerated, Kavitha was still free.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on Kavitha’s pleas against the summons issued by ED in connection with the Delhi Liquor scam till March 19. Kavitha had refused to appear before CBI following summons after she was designated as an accused in the case.
The ED officials and BRS working president K T Rama Rao also entered into a spat after the former reached Kavitha’s residence. While the officials demanded to know how Rao gained entry into the residence, the BRS leader sought to see the transit warrant to arrest Kavitha. Rao also accused the ED of deliberately arresting her on a Friday.
Condemning the arrest of Kavitha by ED the BRS alleged that it was preplanned by the BJP to demoralise BRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Party leader T Harish Rao questioned the timing of the arrest, claiming that the Supreme Court had ordered that no coercive action should be taken against her.
She was arrested on Friday evening deliberately so that she could not move court, he alleged.
The party has decided to move the apex court against her arrest and has given a call for protest in all constituencies across Telangana.
Meanwhile, security has been beefed up at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport as Kavitha, accompanied by her husband, was taken to Delhi late in the evening.