ED issues fresh summons after BRS leader Kavitha skips questioning in excise policy case

BRS leader K Kavitha on Thursday skipped the second round of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) with a plea to defer proceedings against her till Supreme Court rules in her petition seeking protection from arrest and summons but the agency rejected it and issued a fresh summons for March 20.

Kavitha sent an "authorised representative", BRS General Secretary Soma Bharat Kumar, in the morning with her letter to the investigating officer, informing that she was not appearing before them as the summons had not specifically asked her to appear in person.

She asked the ED to defer the proceedings till the Supreme Court rules on her petition, and said the proceedings of the apex court are "sacred and sacrosanct, the outcome thereof must be awaited before any further proceedings take place with respect to the subject summons". The Supreme Court will hear her petition on March 24.

Kavitha said she "absolutely has no hesitation" in joining the investigation and rendering cooperation with any enquiry as she has done in the past.

However, the ED officials rejected her plea to defer her questioning as the probe is at an "important phase" and her physical confrontation with other accused in the Delhi excise policy case was needed while asking her to appear before the investigators on next Monday. She was first questioned on March 11.

In her first deposition, she said in the letter, she had "furnished all relevant information and answered all queries to the best of my knowledge, ability and understanding" but her phone was impounded though there was "nothing brought on record as to how" her phone was connected with the case.

She also said that being a woman, she should not be summoned to the ED office but this exercise should either be conducted over a video link or the investigators can visit her residence. She also claimed that she was not confronted with an accused in the case as "specifically" mentioned in the summons. A woman ED officer candidly told her that there was a "change of plans".

"I, therefore, have reasons to believe and a grave apprehension that the enquiry/investigation being carried out may not have the sanctity of law and my expectation of a free, fair, or impartial enquiry or investigation has been severely impaired," she said.

The ED had registered a money laundering case on the basis of a CBI FIR, which alleged irregularities and corruption in the formulation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy that favoured cartelisation of the alcohol business in the capital. The excise policy came under the CBI and ED scanners after Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a probe following a report by the Chief Secretary.