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SC refuses Kavitha interim bail, agrees to hear regular plea
A bench, headed by justice BR Gavai, posted the matter for August 20 and declined to consider interim bail till CBI and ED appear on the next date
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant interim bail to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in a case relating to irregularities in the Delhi liquor policy, but agreed to consider her regular bail plea after seeking a response from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A bench, headed by justice BR Gavai, posted the matter for August 20 and declined to consider interim bail till CBI and ED appear on the next date.
Kavitha approached the top court against the order of the Delhi high court refusing her bail on July 1 in both cases investigated against her by CBI and ED.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the former MP and daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, submitted to the court that his client’s case squarely falls for relief as determined by the courts in the recent judgments granting bail to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.
“She has been in jail for five months, She is entitled to bail as has been held by this court while granting bail to Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal,” Rohatgi said. Further, he argued, that Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which provides rigorous standards for grant of bail, makes an exception for women.
The bench, also comprising justice KV Viswanathan, said, “The high court has dealt with it. It says she is educated and is a politician and is not a vulnerable woman.”
Rohatgi argued that being a former MP does not mean she ceases to enjoy the protection for women under the proviso to Section 45. As the court was inclined to take up her regular bail plea on August 20, Rohatgi requested for interim bail. “Not before we hear them (CBI and ED),” the bench replied.
Kavitha, who is named as an accused along with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Kejriwal, Sisodia and MP Sanjay Singh, besides others, is accused of being part of the conspiracy in the formulation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy of 2021-22 to benefit private liquor retailers. She was arrested first by the ED in March this year following which CBI also took her into custody. She has denied all charges.
The Delhi high court order rejecting her bail plea noted that one of the accused Sharat Chandra Reddy, who later turned approver, claimed that he participated in the Delhi liquor business under the new policy on Kavitha’s assurances. During investigation, it was revealed that in the bidding for liquor retail zones in July 2021, Reddy had won five zones and payment of ₹14 crore was made to Kavitha under a sham land deal. The high court order further recorded that an additional sum of ₹80 lakh was paid by Reddy’s company Aurobindo Pharma to her NGO Telangana Jagruthi after she allegedly gave an assurance to support Reddy’s business in Delhi.
ED had argued before the high court that Kavitha’s involvement in the scam was further revealed by the presence of her associates Arun R Pillai and Abhishek Boinpally at a Delhi hotel to ensure favourable provisions are incorporated at the time the draft excise policy was being prepared.
“In view of the above material, this court is of the opinion that K Kavitha was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy hatched in relation to formulation and implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22,” the high court held.
The exemption for women accused from the rigors of bail under PMLA was argued by Kavitha’s lawyers even in the high court. At that time, the court observed: “The appellant (Kavitha) cannot be equated to a vulnerable woman who may have been misused to commit an offence, which is the class of women for whom the proviso to section 45 of PMLA has been incorporated....Accordingly, K Kavitha is not entitled to the benefit of proviso to Section 45 of PMLA.”
