The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged that BRS MLC Kavitha was the key player in arranging Rs 100 crore bribes to AAP in return for benefits from Delhi Liquor Case. ED in a media release gave details of allegations against her, who is now under their custody, after arresting her three days ago in Hyderabad.
Probe found, the ED claimed in a statement, that Kavitha along with others “conspired with the top leaders of AAP including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia for getting favours in the Delhi excise policy-formulation and implementation.” “In exchange for these favours, she was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to the leaders of AAP,” the agency said.
By the acts of “corruption and conspiracy” in the formulation and implementation of Delhi excise policy 2021-22, a continuous stream of illegal funds in the form of kickback from the wholesalers was generated for the AAP, it said.
Kavitha asserted earlier that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the Centre was “using” the ED as the BJP could not gain a “backdoor entry” into Telangana. The Aam Aadmi Party has accused the BJP of using ED and CBI as its “goons” to finish off political opponents.
The agency said it has conducted searches at 245 locations across the country since the registration of a case in 2022 and has arrested 15 persons, including former Delhi deputy CM and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia, AAP leader Sanjay Singh and some liquor businessmen.
It has filed a total of six charge sheets in this case till now and had attached assets worth over Rs 128 crore. The ED and the CBI have alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.
The policy was subsequently scrapped and Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the irregularities in its formulation and implementation. Later, the ED registered a case under the PMLA.
