Hyderabad: BJP national executive member and former MP G Vivek Venkataswamy on Monday made a sensational claim that BRS MLC K Kavitha will soon be arrested just as the Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was on Sunday.
“Everybody knows about this liquor scam. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the sake of funds for elections in Punjab and Gujarat, spoke with Kavitha and made a deal where she gave Rs 150 crore to the AAP government. Very soon, just like Sisodia, she will be arrested as well,” he said.
BRS MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla and the ‘South Group’ gave kickbacks to AAP’s communications in-charge Vijay Nair on behalf of the AAP leadership to the tune of Rs 100 crore, the 400-page chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate on February 2 had said.
ED said that Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally conspired with Dinesh Arora, an aide to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, to assist in the movement of the said money.
In August of last year, BJP MP Parvesh Varma and former MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa pulled Kavitha’s name into the Delhi liquor policy scam, forcing her to go to court and secure injunction orders against the leaders, requesting that they refrain from using her name.
In a party meeting last November, KCR alleged how the BJP approached Kavitha about joining them, implying that she is being targeted for refusing to give in. Kavitha, too, confirmed that ‘friends of BJP’ approached her about joining the party.
The following month, her name surfaced on the ED’s chargesheet, which claimed she was one of the scam’s main benefactors.
Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation after eight hours of questioning in the now-scrapped excise policy case.
Sisodia’s arrest
Shortly before arriving at the CBI office for questioning, the Deputy Chief Minister said false cases are being lodged against leaders of the party as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “afraid” of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“Conspiracies are being hatched by the CBI and ED and false cases being lodged against our party leaders because PM Narendra Modi is afraid of CM Arvind Kejriwal’s rising popularity. As AAP grows further, BJP will continue to slap false cases on us. We are not afraid of the CBI, ED and their false cases,” Sisodia said, claiming that people were starting to regard the AAP as an alternative to the BJP.
Reacting to the development his political aide and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal termed the arrest as “dirty politics” and claimed that he is innocent.
