Delhi High Court seeks CBI response to K Kavitha bail plea

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a bail petition filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in the Delhi excise policy case.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma also sought CBI's reply to Kavitha's petition challenging her arrest by the CBI and the subsequent order of the trial court remanding her the agency's custody.

Kavitha has filed two separate pleas. While one is an appeal against the trial court order denying her bail, the other is a writ petition challenging the arrest and the remand order.

In the writ petition, she has also sought quashing of the order passed by the trial court by which CBI was granted permission to interrogate her while she was in judicial custody after her arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case in relation to the same scam.

As per Kavitha's plea, the orders passed by the trial court were in violation of the provisions of the criminal law and an "anathema" to the rights granted under the Constitution.

"The perusal of the remand application dated 12.04.2024 also makes it clear that all the evidences relied upon by the CBI are not immediately collected and were illegally procured by CBI in connivance with ED long ago, thus there was no immediate reason to arrest the accused, of course apart from restraining her to campaign for the ongoing General Elections," the Court was told.

Both petitions will be heard together next on May 24 along with her bail plea in the ED case.

Kavitha was arrested by the CBI on April 11.

She had earlier been arrested by the ED on March 15 from Hyderabad, following allegations that she was involved in a money laundering case connected with the alleged Delhi excise scam.

The trial court rejected her bai plea in both CBI and ED cases on May 6.

The case against Kavitha and others originated in 2022 when a First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging that the Delhi Excise Policy of 2021-22 was manipulated to facilitate monopolisation and cartelisation of wholesale and retail liquor trade in Delhi.

As per the CBI and ED, certain persons/ group from South India were benefited in the process and some amount of their profits was given to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which used the same to campaign for Goa assembly elections.

The case was registered under provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Meanwhile, ED is separately probing money laundering allegations in the case.

Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari along with advocates Nitesh Rana, Deepak Nagar and Mohith Rao appeared for K Kavitha.