In a big political development, K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case.

The ED has asked Kavitha to appear before the agency on 9 March in the national capital.

This is the second time in four months that she has been summoned.

Kavitha is a member of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party and a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC).

She has been called so that she can be confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, an alleged frontman of the 'south group', who was arrested by the ED on Monday.

According to the ED remand report in Pillai’s case, the agency has called him Kavitha’s benami and was representing her interests in the liquor firm, Indospirits.

Apart from Kavitha and Pillai, the 'south group' comprises of Sarath Reddy, promoter of Aurobindo Pharma, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, YSR Congress MP from Ongole Lok Sabha seat, and others, as per the ED. 

Responding to ED’s summon, Kavitha said that she would be in Delhi to hold a one-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar on 10 March to seek the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the upcoming session of Parliament.

However, she would cooperate with the agency but at the time of her choosing.

She was questioned by the probe agency at her Hyderabad house on 11 December 2022.

The CBI had arrested a Hyderabad-based chartered accountant, who is understood to be the former auditor of Kavitha, in connection with the Delhi excise policy case in February 2023. 

The alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy for 2021-22, which granted licences to liquor traders, had allowed cartelisation.

The policy was later scrapped, and the Delhi Lieutenant Governor had recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

(With inputs from PTI)