K Kavitha submits her phones as she enters 3rd round of ED questioning
Mar 21, 2023
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India] March 21 : Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter K Kavitha on Tuesday said that she submitted all the phones she has used so far as she went for the third round of questioning in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) New Delhi office.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader ahead of a third round of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi Excise policy-linked money laundering case on Tuesday displayed to mediapersons the mobile phones used by her.
She displayed the phones to media persons before entering the ED office here. The BRS leader also submitted a letter addressed to ED officials.
"In continuance and furtherance of my repeated appearances before you and rendering all due assistance and cooperation and despite the actions of the the agency being ex-facie malafide," Kavitha said in her letter.
"These phones are submitted without prejudice to my right and contentions and larger contention whether a women's phone can be intruded, in the teeth of her right to privacy," she said.
The BRS leader said alleged that "as it may, the deliberate leakage of the false accusation to the public has led to a political slugfest, wherein my political adversaries have been flaunting the accusations, accusing me of destroying the so-called evidence, and indulging in causing great harm to my reputation, and attempting to defame me, my political party as well as to lower my image in the eyes of the public at large."
She further added it is unfortunate that a premier agency like Enforcement Directorate is becoming a privy party to these acts and sabotaging and sacrificing its sacrosanct duty of free and fair investigation at the altar of vested political interest.
On Monday, the BRS MLC was grilled by the ED for almost ten hours in New Delhi.
According to sources, Kavitha sought to know from the ED officials how they could conclude that she was involved in the Delhi Excise policy case, but received no answers from the central agency officials on why she was being questioned, sources said.
The Telangana legislator had initially declined to participate in the investigation in the ED office and was willing to respond via emails. However, she later changed her mind and joined the investigation in the capital.
In response to a pointed query by Kavitha, the ED officials said that that she was not called in for questioning as an "accused person".
Following an appeal from Kavitha, the central agency officials had to arrange for audio and video recordings of the entire questioning process. Despite her repeated requests, officials were said to have failed to share any evidence about her involvement in the case.
The BRS sources said she was made to sit alone in a room as part of harassment apparently due to political pressures. Further, their questions were also said to be on the lines to explore her political ties.
Throughout the 11-hour questioning on Monday, the ED officials reportedly posed 14 questions to Kavitha who answered them all.
Though some officials had earlier leaked information to a section of media that the BRS legislator will be confronted with several other accused persons in the case, it is now confirmed that she was kept alone in a room for many hours and had no confrontation with any of the accused in the case, sources said.
The officials are learnt to have arrived nearly one hour after she reached the ED office to record her statement. Kavitha reportedly asked the ED officials whether they found incriminating evidence on the phone seized from her and sought to know who leaked to the media that she destroyed her phones. She asked why the Central agency was in a hurry to question her, despite a case filed by her being scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court on March 24.