Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha is likely to become the government witness in connection with the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case, sources said. They further said that as many as 15 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could also testify themselves as the government's witness in the matter. This comes a day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested in the matter on Thursday night.
Kavitha arrested in liquor policy case
Kavitha, the daughter of BRS founder and former Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, was arrested after a day-long questioning followed by a raid at her Hyderabad residence on March 15. However, on March 18, she moved to the Supreme Court challenging her arrest in a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy case.
As per reports, ED recovered around five mobile phones from K Kavitha's house during the search. Statement of a witness who was present at the spot said that ED showed the search warrant but Kavita did not allow them for the investigation. After some time, the search operation was started.
The action cames almost two months after the ED issued summons to the 45-year-old BRS MLC. She was questioned thrice in this case last year, with the central agency recording her statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The BRS leader claimed earlier that she did nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP at the Centre was "using" the ED as it could not gain a "backdoor entry" into Telangana.
SC refuses bail to BRS leader K Kavitha
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail to BRS leader K Kavitha in the case. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi asked Kavitha to approach the trial court, saying it is a practice that this court is following and cannot bypass the protocol.
The bench said as far as Kavitha’s plea challenging the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is concerned, the court is issuing notice to the ED and seeking its response in six weeks.
"The petition challenging the provisions will come up with the pending matters," the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Kavitha. At the outset, Sibal told the bench that he has one request to the court that he should not be asked to go to the high court. The ED has alleged that Kavitha was a part of liquor cartel 'South Group' which paid kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in return for favours under the now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
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