Delhi Excise policy case: SC seek responses from CBI, ED on BRS leader K Kavitha's bail pleas

Kavitha being arrested by ED. File pic/PTI

The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the CBI and ED on BRS leader K Kavitha's pleas seeking bail in corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

A bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan agreed to hear Kavitha's pleas challenging the Delhi High Court's July 1 verdict denying her bail in these cases.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Kavitha, told the bench that she has been in custody for around five months and the charge sheet and prosecution complaint has been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) respectively.

A prosecution complaint is the ED's equivalent of a charge sheet.

Rohatgi said there were around 500 witnesses in both these cases.

Contending that she was entitled to bail, Rohatgi referred to the apex court's verdict and order passed on the pleas filed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia.

The top court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case linked to the alleged scam. Sisodia was granted bail in both the corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

Rohatgi said Kavitha's case was covered by these orders of the top court.

"We will issue notice," the bench said.

"May I pray for interim bail," Rohatgi said.

The bench observed, "Not without hearing them (CBI and ED)".

The bench then issued notices to the CBI and the ED seeking their responses on Kavitha's pleas and posted the matter for hearing on August 20.

The high court had on July 1 dismissed Kavitha's bail pleas in both cases, saying she was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy related to the formation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

The CBI and the ED have lodged separate cases about alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and implementation of the policy.

The ED arrested Kavitha (46) from her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15. The CBI arrested her on April 11 in connection with the corruption case linked to the alleged scam.

Kavitha has denied the allegations.

While dismissing her bail pleas, the high court had said no case for grant of regular bail was made for now as the investigation is at a crucial stage.

It had rejected her plea for relief on the grounds of being a woman, saying as a well-educated person and a former MP, she cannot be equated to a vulnerable female, and the court cannot lose sight of the "serious allegations" against her.

This "court is of the opinion that K Kavitha was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy hatched about formulation and implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22," the high court had said.

In the high court, Kavitha had challenged the May 6 order of a trial court that dismissed her bail applications in the CBI's corruption case and the ED's money-laundering case.

Before the high court in the ED case, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, had said she had "nothing to do" with the excise policy. There was a criminal conspiracy against her "orchestrated by the ruling party at the Centre with the active connivance of the ED".

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