In a major setback, a Delhi court on Monday denied interim bail to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator K Kavitha who is accused of allegedly paying Rs 100 crore to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders in return for liquor licences in the Capital.
The ED took Kavitha — a member of the Telangana Legislative Council and daughter of former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao — into custody from Hyderabad on March 15.
Kavitha had urged the court on April 4 for enlarging her on interim bail on account of her 16-year-old son’s exams for which he needed his mother’s “moral and emotional support”. The judge had reserved the order on the plea for Monday.
Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, has been accused of being a key member of the “South Group”, which allegedly paid the ruling AAP in Delhi kickbacks of Rs 100 crore in return for a big share of liquor licences in the national capital. She was sent to 14-day judicial custody.
Meanwhile, the BRS leader, arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, on Saturday moved a city court urging it to recall its order allowing the CBI to interrogate her in Tihar jail. The CBI is probing the corruption angle in the excise policy case.
Kavitha’s advocate Nitesh Rana told the court that the CBI thwarted the due process of law by filing a plea seeking permission to question her “behind her back”. “I have grave apprehension that CBI may not have divulged true facts in order to obtain a favourable order from the court,” Rana said.
He urged the court to keep its Friday order allowing Kavitha’s questioning in judicial custody in abeyance until she has been heard. The court heard the submission and posted the matter for hearing on April 10 after the CBI sought time to reply to Kavitha’s plea.
Special Judge for ED and CBI cases Kaveri Baweja, however, did not give any interim relief to Kavitha. Rana later said that even though the court did not recall the order, according to judicial discipline, the probe agency must refrain from executing it as Kavitha’s application was pending before the judge.