Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has deferred the hearing on Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Kalvakuntla Kavitha’s plea seeking default bail in the Excise Policy case. Special Judge Kaveri Baweja has scheduled the matter for further hearing on July 22.
In the last hearing, the court issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding Kavitha’s plea. Advocate Nitesh Rana represented Kavitha and argued that while considering the charge sheet for the purpose of cognizance on July 6, the court specifically noted that the charge sheet was defective. Rana contended that Kavitha should be granted default bail since the CBI failed to file a complete charge sheet within the mandatory 60-day period. He also requested interim bail while the present bail application is pending.
Notably, Kavitha’s previous regular bail applications were dismissed by both the trial court and the High Court. She was arrested by the CBI on April 11 in the Delhi Excise Policy case, following her arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 15. The CBI filed a charge sheet against her on June 6, which is pending for cognizance on July 15. This charge sheet is the third supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI in the case.
On July 8, the trial court reserved its order on the cognizance of the CBI’s charge sheet against Kavitha.
Special Judge Kaveri Baweja reserved the order after hearing submissions from CBI’s Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) DP Singh, stating that the order would be pronounced on July 15.
Advocate DP Singh submitted that cognizance of the offence has already been taken. He pointed out that a policy was made with the influence of the South Group, and all key persons in the group operated under Kavitha’s command. Singh also referred to statements from TDP MP Magunta S Reddy, who met Delhi CM Kejriwal on March 16, 2021, and his son, Raghav Magunta, who confirmed this. Singh further stated that the list of statements includes Sarath Reddy, Gopi Kumaran, and Raghav Magunta, among others, who will speak against Kavitha. He emphasized that while cognizance of the offence has been taken, this charge sheet is for the limited purpose of considering and summoning the accused.
