The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday (August 20) the bail pleas of BRS leader Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who is implicated in corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
On August 12, the apex court sought responses from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Kavitha’s petitions challenging the Delhi High Court’s July 1 verdict, which denied her bail in these cases. According to the cause list for August 20 posted on the Supreme Court’s website, a bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan is set to hear her pleas.
During the August 12 hearing, Kavitha’s counsel argued for bail, stating that she has been in custody for approximately five months and that both the charge sheet and prosecution complaint have already been filed by the CBI and ED, respectively. A prosecution complaint is the ED’s equivalent of a charge sheet.
Her lawyer also referenced the Supreme Court’s previous rulings on the bail pleas of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia. The top court had earlier granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case linked to the alleged scam, while Sisodia was granted bail in both the corruption and money laundering cases related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
The high court, on July 1, had dismissed Kavitha’s bail pleas in both cases, stating that she was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy related to the formation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
The CBI and ED have lodged separate cases pertaining to alleged corruption and money laundering in connection with the policy.
K Kavitha was arrested by the ED from her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15, and subsequently by the CBI on April 11 in relation to the corruption case tied to the alleged scam. Kavitha has denied the allegations against her.
In dismissing her bail pleas, the high court stated that no case for granting regular bail was made out at this time, as the investigation was at a crucial stage. The court also rejected her plea for relief based on her gender, stating that as a well-educated individual and a former MP, she cannot be equated to a vulnerable female, and the court cannot ignore the “serious allegations” against her.
Kavitha had challenged the May 6 order of a trial court that dismissed her bail applications in both the CBI’s corruption case and the ED’s money laundering case. Before the high court in the ED case, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader, who is also the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, argued that she had “nothing to do” with the excise policy and that a criminal conspiracy had been orchestrated against her by the ruling party at the Centre with the active involvement of the ED.
