Delhi Excise policy case: Court issues notice to CBI on K Kavitha’s plea for default bail

New Delhi [India], July 8 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue Court on Monday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a bail plea of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha. She has sought a default bail in the Delhi Excise policy case.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja issued notice to the CBI and listed the matter on July 12 for further hearing.

Advocate Nitesh Rana and Mohit P Rao appeared for K Kavitha. They submitted that while considering the charge sheet for the purpose of cognizance on July 6, it was specifically dictated by the court that the charge sheet was defective.

It is submitted that the applicant seeking a default bail as the CBI has failed to file a complete charge sheet within a mandatory period of 60 days. It was also submitted that she should be granted default bail in the matter and interim bail during the pendency of the present bail application.

Her earlier regular bail applications were dismissed by the trial court and High Court.

Kavitha is in judicial custody in both the CBI and the money laundering case. She was first arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on March 15. Thereafter, she was arrested by the CBI on April 11.

The ED has also filed the charge sheet against her in the Delhi Excise Policy money laundering case. The CBI inquiry was recommended based on the findings of the Delhi Chief Secretary’s report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials said.

The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies said.

As per the allegations, the Excise Department had decided to refund the earnest money deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules.

Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19, the probe agency said and there was an alleged loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer.