Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Arvind Dharampuri on Wednesday, lashed out at the Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) MP K Kavitha, over her comments on being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi Excise Policy case.

Hitting out at Kavitha on Twitter, Dharampuri said, “Aap chronology Samjiye…KCR govt. didn’t have a single woman in its cabinet from 2014-2018, for obvious reasons of Ms Kavitha’s hegemony in the party, who was an MP from Nizamabad then.” “After losing to @BJP4India candidate in 2019 General Elections, subsequently becoming MLC in Nepotism quota & now evolving as a key conspirator in #DelhiLiquorScam, her sudden epiphany to fight for Women’s Reservation bill is just her futile attempt to divert people’s attention,” he added.

He further said that Telangana is “bowing in shame” because of Kavitha’s alleged involvement in the alleged scam.

#Telangana never bowed down to anyone in the First or Recent Telangana movement, but now is bowing in shame before the Nation in the light of your involvement in #DelhiLiquorScam @blsanthosh,” he said.

Further taking a jibe at Kavitha, the BJP leader asked her to “convince” her father regarding the Women Reservation Bill.

“Your community represents not more than 1 per cent of the Telangana population but represents more than 22 per cent of the Telangana cabinet. Kindly convince your father to accommodate 33 per cent of women in his cabinet to gain tiny sanctity to your farce agitation on the Women Reservation Bill,” he said in a subsequent tweet.

Arvind Dharampuri’s reaction comes hours after K Kavitha called the summon issued by ED against her a “tactics of intimidation” by the centre.

In a statement on Wednesday, K Kavitha had termed the summons as “tactics of intimidation” by the Centre, against the Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the BRS party, Kavitha stated she and the party would continue to fight to expose the Centre’s failures and will raise voice for a brighter and better future for India.

“I would also like the ruling party at the Centre to know that these tactics of intimidation against the fight and voice of our leader, CM KCR, and against the entire BRS Party will not deter us. Under the leadership of KCR Garu, we will continue to fight to expose your failures and raise voices for a brighter and better future for India,” Kavitha posted a statement on Twitter today.

She said that although she will cooperate in the investigation but will seek ‘legal opinion’ regarding the date of attending the summon.
She also said that Telangana would not “bow down” before the “power mongers” in Delhi.

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned K Kavitha on March 9, to record her statement in connection with its ongoing probe Delhi excise policy case, sources said.

As per sources, Kavitha will be confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who was arrested on Monday night in the case.

In its investigation, ED has come to know that Pillai is one of the key persons in the entire scam involving payments of huge kickbacks and the formation of the biggest cartel of the South Group.

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.

As per allegations, the Excise Department had decided to refund the Earnest Money Deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules. Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19.

This allegedly caused a loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer, which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.