Ex-KCR daughter checker K Kavitha arrested by CBI in Delhi liquor policy case

A Telangana-based chartered accountant formerly employed with KCR’s daughter K Kavitha has been summoned to the nation’s capital and arrested by the CBI in the Delhi liquor policy case.

Butchi Babu, K Kavitha’s former auditor, represented the “South Group” in the case, the CBI said. He was arrested on Tuesday evening for being uncooperative and his answers turned out to be evasive, the agency said.

The CBI alleged that Mr Babu’s role in formulating and implementing Delhi’s now-discontinued excise policy caused ‘undue gain’ to Hyderabad-based wholesale and retail licensees and their beneficial owners.

Earlier, K Kavitha was questioned by a CBI team in Hyderabad on December 12 for over seven hours in connection with the case.

The Law Enforcement Branch, which investigates financial crimes, had alleged that K Kavitha was part of the ‘South Cartel’ which benefited from bribes in the liquor policy case.

The policy was withdrawn last year by the AAP government after a CBI investigation was ordered by the capital’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, a representative of the BJP-led government at the center.

The Directorate of Law Enforcement and the CBI have claimed that irregularities were committed during the amendment of Delhi’s excise policy with the connivance and bribes of a lobby known as the of “South Group”.

The group included Kavitha from Telangana’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Magunta Srinivasalu Reddy, a ruling YSR Congressman from Andhra Pradesh, and Sarath Reddy from Aurobindo Pharma, according to the agency.

Under it, license fees were waived or reduced, and undue favors were given to liquor licensees, the agencies claimed.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has been named as a defendant and questioned in the case.