BRS chief KT Rama Rao arguing with ED officers at K Kavitha’s Hyderabad residence (File).
Hyderabad:
The arrest Friday night of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s K Kavitha – in reference to the Delhi liquor policy case – triggered a dramatic confrontation between her brother and senior BRS chief KT Rama Rao, and the group of Enforcement Directorate officers who took Ms Kavitha into custody.
A video from inside K Kavitha’s Hyderabad residence confirmed Mr Rama Rao, or KTR, in a heated verbal spat with ED officers. In the video, he claimed the company officers didn’t have the transit warrant wanted to maneuver Ms Kavitha – the daughter of former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao – to Delhi.
“Madam Bhanu Priya Meena says search is completed (and) arrest warrant is issued, but they don’t have a transit warrant. And now she says family cannot come in?” KTR asks the ED officers.
“So you can’t produce her before a magistrate. How can you make a case?”
READ | BRS’ K Kavitha Arrested By ED Over Delhi Liquor Policy Case
A transit warrant, or a transit remand order, is a judicial Justice of the Peace’s directive assigning an arrested particular person to police custody earlier than they are often moved, legally, throughout state borders.
Sources have informed NDTV Ms Kavitha will now be taken to Delhi for additional questioning.
Official arrest paperwork #KavithaArrest@ndtv@ndtvindiapic.twitter.com/ZLfJk4kf1b
— Uma Sudhir (@umasudhir) March 15, 2024
The 43-second video from K Kavitha’s residence additionally exhibits KTR (and his aides) and the probe company group going head-to-head, with either side filming the stand-off and attempting to shout down the opposite.
At one level within the video Ms Meena (the girl within the yellow shirt) shouts an instruction to a person filming the confrontation, “How did you come in? How did they come in? Ask them that question…”
To this, an affiliate of KTR shoots again, “Madam, door was open… the door was open”.
READ | BRS Leader K Kavitha’s House Raided Over Delhi Liquor Policy Case
The spat between KTR and the ED officers additionally consists of warnings of contravening Supreme Court orders; the previous Telangana Minister declares, “You are in serious trouble (for violating terms of an undertaking to the top court)”, to which the company official replies, “You have legal remedies.”
K Kavitha, the ED has claimed, is a part of a ‘South group’ that bribed Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party for liquor licences beneath the now-scrapped liquor excise coverage. The ‘South group’ is accused of paying Rs 100 crore in bribes, cash the ED claims was utilized by the AAP for election campaigns.
She has been questioned twice earlier than on this case – in 2022 and 2023 – however has since skipped a number of summons by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation. She additionally moved the Supreme Court claiming the central companies couldn’t summon feminine accused to seem at their workplaces.
READ | “No Logic”: K Kavitha On CBI Summons In Liquor Policy Case
Ms Kavitha has beforehand denied all prices in opposition to her, and has accused the BJP of focusing on her by way of the ED for political achieve. Her arrest this night comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Telangana for a mega outreach – he’ll maintain a highway present – earlier than the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
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