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SC asks K Kavitha to approach trial court for bail in excise policy case
The court, however, issued a notice on her petition challenging provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act under which she was arrested on March 15.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha to approach the trial court for bail in the money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi asked Kavitha to approach the trial court, saying it is a practice that this court is following and that cannot bypass the protocol, reported PTI.
It, however, issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on her petition challenging provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act under which she was arrested on March 15.
“The petition challenging the provisions will come up with the pending matters,” the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Kavitha, according to PTI.
During the hearing, Sibal told the bench that people are being arrested on the basis of an approver's statement. The court, however, said it is not going into the merit of the case at the moment.
Case against K Kavitha
Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, is currently in the agency's custody till March 23.
The ED claims that Kavitha ‘conspired’ with top Aam Aadmi Party leaders, including the party supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former minister Manish Sisodia, to get favours in the Delhi liquor policy by paying ₹100 crore to the political party. Kavitha has refuted the allegations and has termed ED's actions against her as ‘illegal’.
Following her arrest, BRS leader and her brother KT Rama Rao lashed out at the BJP-led government at the Centre. In a post on X, he wrote, “Abuse of power and institutional misuse to settle political scores is something that has become increasingly common with BJP govt in last 10 years…”
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“ED needs to answer Supreme Court on the inordinate rush to arrest when the matter is very much sub-judice & up for review in a couple of days, on the 19th March. What’s even more appalling is the ED undermining it’s own undertaking given to the Hon’ble Supreme Court," he added.
The ED questioned Kavitha thrice last year in this case and again summoned her this year but she did not depose citing a Supreme Court direction that allowed her protection from any coercive action.
Kavitha was also earlier questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the case.
