Kavitha leaves for Delhi on eve of her questioning by ED

Doubts over whether she will actually attend the questioning by the Enforcement Directorate

Chief Minister K. Chandrsekhar Rao’s daughter and Bharat Rashtra Samiti MLC K. Kavitha on Sunday left for Delhi ahead of her scheduled questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor scam.

She was accompanied by her brother and Minister K.T. Rama Rao, cousin and Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament J. Santosh Kumar and a few close friends in a special chartered flight.

Ms. Kavitha undertook the visit amidst doubts whether she will attend the questioning by the ED as her petition in the Supreme Court levelling serious charges against the ED was listed for hearing on March 24. She had defied summons to appear in person and instead sent her lawyer for the questioning by the agency on the previous occasion on March 16 citing the Supreme Court case.

After her first questioning that lasted nearly nine hours on March 11, the ED issued her a fresh notice wanting her appearance again on March 16 with the intention to seek information with the co-conspirators in the scam. Meanwhile, Ms. Kavitha filed the case in the Supreme Court saying the Central agency defied Constitutional guarantees and not honoured women’s rights by detaining her well beyond sunset till 8.30 p.m. She said the ED threatened her with coercive and third degree methods to extract information. She also informed court that her personal phone was taken away by ED.

She reminded the court that the ED had given an undertaking to the court in former Union Minister P. Chidambaram’s wife Nalini Chidambaram’s case that it will not insist on her personal appearance. Why was the norm not followed in her case, she asked. In response, the ED filed a caveat on Saturday appealing to the Supreme Court not to pass any order without hearing it.

Ms. Kavitha did not go to ED office though she was in Delhi on March 16. Incidentally, another suspect in the case and YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy also abstained for ED’s questioning two days later citing the hospitalisation of his nephew in Chennai.

Ms. Kavitha sent her bank statements as required by ED with her lawyer amidst intense suspense over what was in store due to her absence and half a dozen ministers from Telangana led by Mr. Rama Rao camping in the capital. The tension subsided with the ED giving a fresh date but all eyes were on whether she would show up.