Excise policy case: Will file response to K Kavitha’s bail plea by Aug 22, ED tells SC

New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday told the Supreme Court it will file its response to BRS leader K Kavitha’s bail plea in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam by August 22.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, appearing for the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan that the CBI’s counter affidavit has already been filed. Raju said the ED’s counter affidavit was in the “pipeline” and would be filed by August 22.

While posting the matter for hearing on August 27, the bench said rejoinder, if any, should be filed by August 23.

The apex court had on August 12 sought responses from the CBI and the ED on Kavitha’s pleas challenging the Delhi High Court’s July 1 verdict denying her bail in the two cases.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the bench said, “We would hear and decide both the matters together.”

“We don’t understand the propriety of filing counters … in the high court, only case diary and everything is placed and orders are passed on the basis of papers,” the bench observed.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Kavitha, said she was a co-accused in the matter in which the apex court recently granted bail to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia.

“She is the only woman (accused in the two cases). Investigation is complete in CBI and ED cases. (Prosecution) Complaint has been filed, charge sheet has been filed,” he said. A prosecution complaint is the ED’s version of a charge sheet.

He said rigours of section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which stipulates twin conditions for bail, does not apply in Kavitha’s case.

“The judge (of high court) has given elaborate reasons as to why (section) 45 would apply,” the bench observed.

According to Section 45 of the PMLA, bail can be granted to an accused in a money laundering case only if the twin conditions – there should be prima facie satisfaction that the accused has not committed the offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail- are satisfied.

The high court had dismissed Kavitha’s bail pleas in both the cases, saying she was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy related to the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

The two central probe agencies have lodged separate cases pertaining to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and implementation of the policy.

The ED arrested Kavitha (46) from her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15. The CBI arrested her on April 11 from Tihar jail in connection with the corruption case.

Kavitha has denied all allegations.

While dismissing her bail pleas, the high court had said no case for grant of regular bail was made for now as the investigation is at a crucial stage.

It had rejected her plea for relief on the grounds of being a woman, saying as a well-educated person and a former MP, she cannot be equated to a vulnerable female, and the court cannot lose sight of the “serious allegations” against her.

In the high court, Kavitha had challenged the May 6 order of a trial court which had dismissed her bail applications in the CBI’s corruption case as well as the ED’s money laundering case.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, had told the high court she had “nothing to do” with the excise policy and there was a criminal conspiracy against her “orchestrated by the ruling party at the Centre with the active connivance of the ED”.