Delhi excise policy: BRS leader Kavitha’s ex auditor deposes before ED; records statement

Butchibabu Gorantla, alleged to be a former auditor of BRS leader K Kavitha, was questioned and confronted with the statements of another arrested accused by the Enfrocement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday in the Delhi excise policy money laundering case, officials said.

His deposition comes a day before the scheduled second summons in the same case for Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, before the federal investigative agency.

Butchibabu was out on bail after the CBI arrested him in this case The auditor is also expected to be confronted with the statements made by Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramachandran Pillai, arrested by the ED on March 6. Pillai is also alleged to be linked to Kavitha, a BRS MLC.

The agency recently informed a local court that Pillai and Butchibabu were staying at a Hyderabad five-star hotel in mid-March, during the period when the GoM report on the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy was being formulated.

”It has been revealed that the hotel’s business centre has been used by the said persons staying there,” the ED said, adding it has sought details from the hotel on this and it was awaited.

”It is crucial to interrogate Pillai in ED custody while confronting him with the hotel records so as to investigate the link between South Group (represented by Pillai, Butchibabu and another arrested accused in the case Abhishek Boinpally) and Vijay Nair/GoM (headed by former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia) at the time of policy formulation,” the ED had said.

Nair, a communication in charge of AAP, was arrested by the…