Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator K Kavitha will remain in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate till March 26. Ms. Kavitha is an accused in a money laundering case pertaining to Delhi excise policy scam and was arrested from her house in Hyderabad on March 15.
Special Judge (PC) Act Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Courts granted ED three more days custody of Ms Kavitha.
The ED, though its special counsel Zoheb Hossain, had sought five more days’ custody of Ms Kavitha and alleged that she is not cooperating in the interrogation.
“She was confronted with statements..... The data in her mobile phone has been extracted and analysed. There is evidence to show that there was deletion of mobile data during ED investigation,” advocate Hossain submitted in the court.
He added that the ED had summoned Ms. Kavitha’s nephew for interrogation in the case multiple times as he was allegedly involving in utilising the proceeds of crime.
“Since he is not cooperating we are conducting searches at several locations,” Hossain added.
Advocate Nitesh Rana who appeared for Ms. Kavitha informed the court that she has filed a bail application in the matter.
The bail plea was opposed by the ED as the agency claimed that ‘a bail plea cannot be entertained at the present stage of the case’.
The detailed court order is awaited in the matter till the time of filing this report.
In its previous remand application on the basis of which the court had remanded her to ED custody till March 23, the agency had alleged that Ms. Kavitha is “one of the conspirator and beneficiary” of the Delhi excise policy scam whose FIR was lodged by the CBI on the complaint of Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi .
After the CBI case, the ED filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“Ms. Kavitha along with other members of the South Group (Sarath Reddy, Raghav Magunta and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy) conspired with Aam Aadmi Party leaders and gave them kickbacks to the tune of ₹100 Crore and in exchange, got undue favours in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy,” the ED alleged.
Ms Kavitha, on March 19, withdrew her plea challenging the ED summons from the Supreme Court. On March 22, the apex court had issued notice on her plea challenging the arrest and asked Ms Kavitha to move to the trial court for bail.
Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh were arrested in connection with the case last year, and have been in judicial custody ever since. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who arrested by ED on March 21, too was sent to six days of the central agency by the same court on March 22.
