Kavitha Leaves For Delhi To Appear Before ED

BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha today left for New Delhi on a special flight from the Begumpet airport.

Kavitha was accompanied by IT minister and brother K T Rama Rao, and MP Santosh Kumar, who all departed for the national capital.

According to sources, advocates and senior members of the BRS legal cell have also headed for Delhi.

She is to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) tomorrow (March 20), which would explain the trip, but the suspense however continues on whether she will appear before the agency.

She had skipped appearing before the ED on March 16, giving a reply to the investigation agency through her representative and BRS general secretary Soma Bharat Kumar that no woman could be compelled to attend as a witness anywhere other than where she resides. Kavitha also said in her letter to ED Assistant Director Jogender that the summons did not require her to appear in person, and that she was sending her authorised representative. She also said that she had filed a plea over the issue in the Supreme Court, which was to hear her plea on March 24, and that she would appear only after the SC ruling.

However, hours after receiving the letter from Kumar, the ED issued fresh summons to Kavitha asking her to appear before it on March 20.

Earlier, the daughter of Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao was questioned for hours by the Enforcement Directorate in the same case on March 11. She was then summoned for another appearance on March 16, which, as mentioned above, she skipped.

Kavitha has alleged a political conspiracy behind the ED summons. She has claimed that she was summoned by the agency on the basis of statements made under threat and coercion.

Her party leaders have also said that the probe agency has become an extended arm of the Bharatiya Janata Party.