BRS leader K Kavitha has been sent to the judicial custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation till April 23.
Kavitha was lodged in the Tihar Jail under judicial custody in a parallel case registered by the Enforcement Directorate alleging her to be one of the “key conspirators” in the case.
The 46-year-old leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has been detained in connection with the alleged irregularities in formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on April 11.
CBI has alleged that she did not cooperate and gave evasive replies, contrary to the evidence, when she was interrogated during her three-day police custody and thus sought to send her to 14 days judicial custody.
Advocate Nitesh Rana and Deepak Nagar who appeared for Kavitha opposed CBI’s submissions and said that not cooperating according to CBI cannot be a ground to be remanded to judicial custody.
The court, after considering the submissions of both the parties, remanded Kavitha to judicial custody till April 23.
In the last hearing on Friday, CBI had alleged that Kavitha was one of the key persons involved in arranging and providing kickbacks of approximately ₹100 crores to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to get favourable provisions added to the now-cancelled policy.
The CBI also alleged that she was in contact with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his team and held partnership, through her proxy, in the company Indospirits, which was a special purpose vehicle (SPV) created for recoupment of kickbacks.
Kavitha was initially apprehended by ED on March 15 in the money laundering case and was sent to judicial custody on March 26.
She was also referred to her as a key person in irregularities surrounding the excise policy by ED.
Till now there has been four high-profile arrests in the case including that of Kejriwal, Delhi’s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and AAP parliamentarian Sanjay Singh. Out of the four, Kejriwal and Singh were only apprehended by ED, and not by CBI. Sanjay Singh was recently granted bail.
Kavitha’s interim bail pleas was also dismissed by the court last week which noted that the materials placed on record show her “active involvement” in the offence and that she was involved in destruction of evidence and influencing the witnesses.
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