Hyderabad: In a significant development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested K Kavitha, a prominent leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao, in Hyderabad. The arrest is part of an ongoing money laundering investigation. Kavitha, who has been under scrutiny for her alleged connections with the ‘South Group’—a liquor traders’ lobby implicated in the Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22—has been taken into custody. The policy in question has since been scrapped, and it remains unclear whether the arrest is directly related to this matter.
The ED’s actions have sparked a political firestorm, with BRS spokesperson Shravan Dasoju condemning the raids as politically motivated. He claims that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are working together to target the leaders of the BRS, led by Chandrashekhar Rao. In response to the arrest, BRS leader and former minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy announced that Kavitha is being transported to Delhi on an evening flight and denounced the move as ‘pre-planned,’ vowing to stage protests.
The situation escalated when BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, former minister Harish Rao, and numerous party workers assembled at Kavitha’s residence, voicing their protest through slogans. The ED maintains that Kavitha’s involvement with the ‘South Group’ was an attempt to exert greater influence over the now-defunct Delhi Excise Policy. As the political drama unfolds, the BRS continues to assert that the central agencies’ actions are a deliberate attempt to harass its leaders.
