Pointing out that her name does not figure either among the accused or in the complaint lodged by the Ministry of Home Affairs over the Delhi Liquor Scam, TRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, on Monday, wrote to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to inform that she was preoccupied on December 6 but provided alternate dates to the probe agency on which they could meet her at her residence in Hyderabad.
Initially, when the CBI issued a notice under section 160 of CrPC to assess the facts related to the scam, it had asked her to meet on 6 December, but offered her a choice on the venue – either in Delhi or her residence in Hyderabad. She had promptly responded and agreed to meet at 11 am on the said date in Hyderabad before retracting. Kavitha, who is the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chndrasekhar Rao, had then asked the agency for a copy of the FIR and that of the complaint which it said was available on its website.
Today, in her letter to the CBI, Kavitha wrote she went through the complaint and the FIR lodged by the agency. “I wish to place on record that my name does not figure in any manner whatsoever,” she wrote.
She, then, went on to add: “As proposed by you, I am not in a position to meet on 6 December, 2022 because of my preoccupied schedule, I will be able to meet you either on 11-12 or 14-15 of this month whichever is convenient to you.”
She also pointed out that she was a law abiding citizen and hence ready to cooperate in the investigation.
Although Kavitha’s name does not figure either in the complaint or on the list of the accused, the Enforcement Directorate named her as one of the powerful South liquor lobby in the court while seeking remand for an accused named Amit Arora. According to the ED, she also allegedly changed her phone ten times to destroy key digital details. After her name cropped up in connection with the Delhi liquor scam, she has been dubbed as the “liquor queen” by the Opposition, especially by the BJP.
However, many point out that in a strange coincidence, her name cropped up in the remand report just after Telangana Special Investigation Team submitted evidence linking BJP ‘s national general secretary BL Santosh with MLA poaching case with the help of screenshots of WhatsApp messages, phone location and statements of witnesses.
Kavitha had also alleged in the past that she had been approached by people friendly to the BJP to split the TRS and topple the government following the “Eknath Shinde model.”