Delhi Liquor Policy: Court Extends K Kavitha’s Judicial Custody Till July 3

A Delhi court on Monday extended Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha's judicial custody till July 3 in connection with a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi Liquor Policy scam.

Court granted bail to three co-accused persons, Prince, Damodar and Arvind Singh who were not arrested but were named in the chargesheet.

Source : PTI Images

A Delhi court on Monday extended Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha's judicial custody till July 3 in connection with a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi Liquor Policy scam.

Previously, the court had issued production warrants for Kavitha and co-accused Chanpreet Singh in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) money laundering probe on May 29. Following which, Kavitha was produced before the Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Court today.

The special judge of Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court extended her custody for a month.

However, the judge granted bail to three co-accused persons, Prince, Damodar and Arvind Singh who were not arrested but were named in the chargesheet.

In the last hearing, the trial court had taken cognisance of the sixth supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED, stating that there was sufficient material to proceed against the accused.

ED filed a sixth supplementary charge sheet on May 10, detailing further evidence and allegations in the case. 

A former MP and BRS leader Kavitha who is also the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was arrested last week for being part of the ‘South Group’ that allegedly benefitted from the now scrapped Delhi Excise Policy brought in by the AAP government in Delhi.

The ED claims that the South Group got uninhibited access, undue favours, and secured stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy). The ED has alleged that the now scrapped new excise policy was implemented by the AAP leaders as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12% to certain private companies in alcohol business.

According to ED, partners of this South Group were given a 65% stake in Indospirit in collusion with its owner Sameer Mahendru (another accused in this case). This was allegedly done to recover kickbacks given by the South Group.

Raghav Magunta, P Sarath Chandra Reddy who is also co-founder of Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma are also said to be partners in the South Group according to ED.

Buchi Babu who was CA to K Kavitha has revealed to the ED that Arun Pillai was working with Vijay Nair in policy formulation and Nair was offering provision for favouring K Kavitha. Nair worked with Sisodia and Kejriwal for the same, says ED's remand note in court.

The ED says that this has been corroborated by WhatsApp messages retrieved from Buchi Babu, wherein certain provisions of the Excise policy were found two days before it was notified. According to Babu's statement Nair sent these provisions to him and Arun Pillai.

ED has so far arrested 18 people in connection with the excise policy case so far. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Delhi CM Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and several other AAP leaders are facing ED probe and have been arrested in the case. 

Sanjay Singh was granted bail by the Supreme Court. Arvind Kejriwal was also granted interim bail for campaigning in elections. He surrendered to Tihar jail authorities on June 2 as directed by the top court. 

The top court is yet to pronounce verdict on Kejriwal's challenge to his arrest by the ED. Delhi's Rouse Avenue court has also reserved verdict on Kejriwal's bail petition, which is likely to be pronounced on Wednesday.