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Delhi court further extends BRS leader K Kavitha’s ED custody till March 26
On Friday, the Supreme Court denied bail to Kavitha in the case and asked the legislator to approach the trial court
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday further remanded Bharat Rashtriya Samithi (BRS) legislator K Kavitha to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till March 26 in connection with its investigation into money laundering charges linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22 case.
Special judge Kaveri Baweja passed the order and directed the probe agency to produce her on March 26 at 11:00am.
On Friday, the Supreme Court denied her bail in the case and asked the legislator to approach the trial court, saying it would not entertain a bail plea merely because she happened to be a political person or could afford to come directly to the top court.
The ED told the court that Kavitha had conspired in the payment of kickbacks of Rs.100 crore and pressed for further remand of five days.
Zoheb Hussain, representing the ED, submitted to the court that her mobile data was analysed by the experts and she was also confronted with a forensic science report which reflected that the data was deleted during the investigation into the money laundering case.
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The advocate told the court the ED was also conducting searches at her nephew’s residence.
Kavitha, 46, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was arrested by the ED from her residence in Hyderabad on the evening of March 15, following a long day search operation and raid carried out by the federal agency and income tax officials.
On March 16, a Delhi court remanded her to the ED custody till March 23, saying that the need for her custodial interrogation was required to trace out the trail of a major portion of the proceeds of crime.
Kavitha, appearing through advocate Nitesh Rana, submitted that the ED was seeking certain documents from her but it would not be possible for her to produce them until she is granted bail.
Rana further told the court that though the BRS legislator had filed a bail application, she was not pressing the same today but only requesting the court to issue notice.
“It is a matter of personal liberty for someone. The reply can be given on the same day when the remand will be heard. I am not pressing for it and only notice may be issued to the ED,” Rana said.
Although she has not been named as an accused in any of the six charge sheets filed by the financial crimes probe agency since November 2023, Kavitha was referred to as a key person in the excise policy-related irregularities in the court documents, said the advocate.
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The primary allegation against Kavitha is that she was part of a cartel, the alleged ‘South Group’ of businessmen and politicians, that paid Rs.crore kickbacks to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders in lieu of getting nine retail zones under the Delhi excise policy. Other members in this group were Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Group) and Delhi businessman Sameer Mahendru.
In a remand note which the ED had filed while seeking AAP chief and New Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s custody for 10 days, the probe agency ED had stated that Vijay Nair on behalf of Kejriwal and the AAP received kickbacks to the tune of Rs.100 crore from the South Group.
Kejriwal was on Friday remanded to the ED custody till March 28 following his arrest the previous day over his alleged involvement in the state’s controversial 2021–22 excise policy — of which ED described the CM as the “kingpin” and “key conspirator”
The BRS leader is also under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner, which is conducting a parallel corruption probe in the case and had issued a summons to her last month, but she cited an exemption granted by the Supreme Court.
