New Delhi: The Delhi high court will on Monday deliver its verdict on K Kavitha’s plea seeking bail in the cases registered over the alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, people aware of the matter said on Sunday. The judgement is likely to be delivered by a bench of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma at 2:30pm.
According to her plea by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the members of the ruling party at the Centre have orchestrated a conspiracy against her with the active connivance of the ED and CBI, despite there being no substance in the allegation of her involvement in the excise policy scam.
The plea highlighted that the investigation that is being conducted by the probe agencies was compromised and was not being carried out to find the untainted truth but to further political agenda.
The BRS leader had appealed against the city court’s May 6 order rejecting her bail application. Denying her bail in the case registered by the ED, the city court had ruled that there appeared to be a “prima facie” case indicating Kavitha’s involvement in the commission of the offence of money laundering in relation to the Delhi excise policy case.
While rejecting bail in the CBI case, the court had ruled that Kavitha’s role “prima facie” appeared as that of a key conspirator in the collection and payment of upfront money to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) through co-accused to get favourable provisions in the excise policy.
Kavitha’s legal team led by senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary and advocate Nitesh Rana asserted that the probe agency’s investigation was biased, partial and lopsided. The lawyers argued that their client was arrested by the ED despite the probe agency’s undertaking before the Supreme Court that it would not take any coercive action against her.
The ED and the CBI, represented by special counsel Zoheb Hossain and DP Singh, countered these claims by emphasizing that the BRS leader was a beneficiary of the proceeds of crime generated in the Delhi excise scam.
Hossain asserted that Kavitha had influenced the co-accused to retract their statements made before the probe agency and destroyed evidence. He also highlighted that the ED had only undertaken before the Supreme Court that the agency would not summon her for the next 10 days in September 2023 but had never made any assurances regarding not arresting her. “There is not a whisper on the part of the petitioner that we have breached (undertaking for not summoning her),” Hossain argued.
Kavitha was arrested by the CBI on April 11, while she was lodged in Tihar Jail under judicial custody in the parallel case registered by the ED. She was initially apprehended by ED on March 15 in connection with the money laundering case and was sent to judicial custody on March 26.
The agencies have alleged that Kavitha is one of the key persons involved in arranging and providing kickbacks of approximately ₹100 crore to the AAP to get favourable provisions added to the now-scrapped policy.
The CBI had earlier on April 6 interrogated Kavitha in Tihar jail after obtaining permission from the court. However, according to the CBI, she did not give satisfactory replies to their questions and gave evasive answers despite being confronted with the evidence.
On May 10, the ED filed a fresh charge sheet in the Delhi excise policy case, naming K Kavitha, an accused among other alleged associates.
The others named in the charge sheet include Chanpreet Singh, who allegedly managed the AAP funds procured through kickbacks in excise policy during the Goa assembly elections 2022; Damodar Prasad Sharma and Prince Kumar (employees in a firm allegedly used for routing of funds); and Arvind Kumar Singh (creative head of India Ahead news channel).
The ED has so far arrested 18 people including four politicians — Kejriwal, Sisodia, Kavitha and Sanjay Singh; filed seven charge sheets against 34 people and entities; and submitted thousands of documents as evidence in the court in the excise probe.
