‘Malicious propaganda’: MLC Kavitha denies receiving ED notice over Delhi liquor scam

Amid raids over the Delhi excise policy case in several locations including Telangana, a few local media outlets had reported that TRS MLC Kavitha Kalavakuntla was served a notice by the ED.
TRS leader Kavitha Kalvakuntla
TRS leader Kavitha Kalvakuntla
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Amid local media reports that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had served notices to Telangana MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla in connection with the alleged multi-crore Delhi liquor scam, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader on Friday, September 16, denied receiving any such notice. The ED on Friday launched fresh raids at about 40 locations across the country as part of an investigation into alleged irregularities in the now scrapped Delhi excise policy, official sources told PTI. Kavitha had earlier filed a defamation suit against two BJP leaders who alleged that she was involved in the scam. A Hyderabad court had issued notices to BJP MP Parvesh Varma and former MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa in the case, prohibiting them from making any defamatory statements against Kavitha. 

On Friday, a few local media outlets reported that Kavitha had been served a notice by the ED. The claim was circulated even as ED conducted searches at premises linked to liquor businessmen, distributors and supply chain networks in Nellore and some other cities in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. However, Kavitha’s team denied the reports and told TNM that no such notice was received. Later, Kavitha also put out a tweet denying the reports. “The media is being misled by the malicious propaganda of people sitting in Delhi. I request all the media houses to rather utilise your time in showing the truth. To save some precious time of the TV viewers, I would like to clarify that I have not received any notice (sic),” Kavitha wrote in a tweet on Friday. 

The ED searches began early on Friday morning, with agency teams being escorted by police and paramilitary personnel at the locations being searched by them. This is the second round of raids by the federal agency in this case, after it first conducted searches on September 6 at about 40 locations across the country including those of a few Punjab government excise department officers.

The Delhi excise policy, implemented from November 17, 2021, was scrapped by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's government in July this year following a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe recommended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena into its implementation. The ED case of money laundering in the excise policy stems from a CBI FIR in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and some Delhi government bureaucrats have been named as accused.

With PTI inputs 

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