E-Paper
Kavitha moves SC against ED summons in Delhi liquor policy case
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha for an urgent hearing on her petition, challenging the summons issued to her by Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Delhi liquor policy scam, people familiar with the matter said.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha for an urgent hearing on her petition, challenging the summons issued to her by Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Delhi liquor policy scam, people familiar with the matter said.
Kavitha, who is going to face the interrogation for a second time by the ED in its Delhi office on Thursday, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking certain protections to her during the questioning and sought directions to the investigating officers to that effect.
A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justice P S Narasimha, however, refused to grant urgent hearing on Kavitha’s petition and stay the summons issued by the ED, asking her to appear before it on March 16. The bench posted the case to March 24.
In her petition, a copy of which was seen by HT, Kavitha expressed apprehensions that the ED might adopt highly coercive tactics and even resort to third degree measures in connection with their purported investigations, as was done in the case of one of the persons connected with an accused in the Delhi liquor policy case.
“I have a genuine belief of being physically and mentally coerced by the Enforcement Directorate, if I am required to attend their office again in connection with the purported investigation,” she said.
Quoting several precedents, Kavitha’s lawyer Vandana Sehgal said according to Section 160 of Criminal Procedure Code under which the BRS lawmaker was summoned, no woman shall be required to attend as witness at any place other than the place in which she resides.
During the earlier questioning on March 11, the ED authorities told her that she would be questioned in the presence of one of the arrested persons accused in the case, but nothing of that sort had happened.
Kavitha alleged that she was forced to produce her cell phone though the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) did not require her to do the same. “The ED authorities had seized my mobile phone and questioned me till 8.30, beyond the sunset which was against the rules,” she argued.
Stating that her name had not figured in any of the first information reports (FIRs) filed in the Delhi liquor policy case, the BRS lawmaker said she was implicated on basis of certain statements of a few persons allegedly involved in the case.
“Such statements have been extracted out of threat and coercion, which is evident from the fact that on March 10, one Arun Ramachandran Pillai, had retracted his statement. The credibility of the statements purported to be against me is under serious doubt,” Kavitha said in the petition.
The chief minister’s daughter requested that the Supreme Court direct the ED authorities to question her at her residence, allow videography of her questioning from a visible distance and along with the other accused arrested in the case.
