Delhi excise policy case | ED files prosecution complaint against Kavitha, four others

Enforcement Directorate files prosecution complaint against K. Kavitha and others in Delhi excise policy scam case.

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a prosecution complaint against Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha and four other accused persons in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. This is the seventh prosecution complaint in the case.

The others have been identified as Damodar Sharma, Prince Kumar, and Chanpreet Singh, all employees of Chariot Productions Media, which had allegedly handled the Aam Aadmi Party’s 2022 State Assembly election campaign in Goa; and Arvind Singh, a former employee of news channel India Ahead.

The ED is likely to file a separate prosecution complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in about a week.

Ms. Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, was arrested by the agency in Hyderabad on March 15. The ED accused her of conspiring with the top AAP leaders, including Mr. Kejriwal and the then Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, for favours in the formulation and implementation of the erstwhile excise policy (2021-22).

The agency had earlier alleged that in exchange for the favours, she was involved in paying ₹100 crore to the AAP leaders and that, as per the arrangement, Ms. Kavitha and her associates were supposed to recover the “proceeds of crime paid in advance to AAP and to further generate profits/proceeds of crime from this entire conspiracy”.

The ED’s money laundering case is based on the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 17, 2022, against Mr. Sisodia and 14 others. It was alleged that the policy had extended an extraordinarily high profit margin of 12% for wholesalers and almost 185% profit margin for retailers.

As alleged, Ms. Kavitha was part of the so-called ‘South Group’, which paid ₹100 crore in advance as “kickbacks” through the then AAP communication and media in-charge Vijay Nair. In lieu of the payment, the group partners were given 65% stake in Indo Spirits company for the recovery of payments in future. These stakes were controlled through “false representation, concealment of true ownership and proxies”.