Excise policy case: Delhi HC seeks CBI’s stand in plea by BRS leader K Kavitha seeking bail

The Delhi High Court also issued a notice to the CBI in K Kavitha's plea challenging her arrest by the agency and the trial court's subsequent order remanding her to the agency's custody.

Delhi Excise Policy Case, Excise policy case, K Kavitha, Arvind Kejriwal, BRS, Delhi High Court,

On May 10, the High Court had issued a notice in Kavitha's bail plea in the ED's money laundering case and had listed the matter on May 24. (Express Archives)

Written by: Malavika Prasad

3 min readNew DelhiMay 16, 2024 04:57 PM IST First published on: May 16, 2024 at 04:57 PM IST

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the Central Bureau of Investigation’s stand in the bail plea of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator K Kavitha pertaining to the now-scrapped excise policy in the national capital.

A single-judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued a notice to the agency and listed the matter on May 24. Kavitha’s bail plea in the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering probe is also listed on May 24.

“There are two aspects before my lord. The first petition is the regular bail. The other (petition) is since the very arrest and the remand was illegal. For the purpose of my prayers they are separate (petitions),” senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary appearing for the BRS leader said.

The High Court also issued a notice to the CBI in Kavitha’s plea challenging her arrest by the agency and the trial court’s subsequent order remanding her to the agency’s custody.

Apart from challenging the entire proceedings leading to her arrest, Kavitha has also challenged the trial court order allowing the CBI to interrogate her while she was in judicial custody. She has claimed that the order was passed without issuing any notice to her or putting her to show cause.

On May 10, the High Court had issued a notice in Kavitha’s bail plea in the ED’s money laundering case and had listed the matter on May 24.

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On May 6, Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Court had rejected Kavitha’s bail plea in both the money laundering and the corruption cases being probed by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), respectively.

The Telangana Legislative Council Member, who has been under the scanner of the central investigating agencies for almost two years now, was arrested by the ED from Hyderabad on March 15.

Following her arrest in the ED case, she was arrested by the CBI in the corruption case on April 11. The BRS leader is presently in judicial custody in both the matters.

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The CBI has alleged that Kavitha met co-accused Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy in March 2021 and told him that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had allegedly spoken to her and demanded Rs 100 crore. She had allegedly also asked Reddy to arrange Rs 50 crore.

In its prosecution complaints (equivalent to chargesheets), the ED has claimed that members of the so-called South Group that Kavitha was associated with had paid bribes to exploit the loopholes in the excise policy that would secure their uninhibited access to various wholesale businesses and retail zones in violation of the rules.