Clean chit for K Kavitha in Delhi liquor policy case

Kalvakuntla Kavitha was suspended from the party last September.

In a major relief in the Delhi liquor policy case, Rouse Avenue court on Friday dismissed the cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against K Kavitha.

The court also quashed the case filed by the CBI against AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal, along with all other accused in the matter.

She was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 15, 2024, at her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad in a money laundering case connected to the Delhi liquor policy scam.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) last year suspended Kavitha, daughter of party president K Chandrasekhar Rao, from the organisation on disciplinary grounds.

The ED alleged that she conspired with top leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), including its convenor Kejriwal and then Deputy CM and Minister of Excise, Manish Sisodia, and gave them Rs 100 crore in bribe. In exchange, Kavitha and other members of the ‘South Group’ or ‘South Lobby’ got undue favours in the Delhi excise policy formulation and implementation and made Rs 192.8 crore in profits, the ED claims.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had said  that its probe found that a liquor businessman from South India met Arvind Kejriwal on March 16, 2021, at the Delhi Secretariat, allegedly seeking support for business interests under the new Excise Policy for 2021–22.

According to the CBI, Kejriwal allegedly assured the businessman of support and indicated that K. Kavitha would get in touch regarding funding for the AAP.

The agency further claimed that Ms Kavitha called the businessman on March 19 and met him the following day in Hyderabad, where she allegedly referred to her coordination with Mr Kejriwal’s team on the Excise Policy.