Legislator K. Kavitha of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), who was detained in connection with a money laundering case related to the Delhi Excise policy, had his judicial custody extended by a Delhi court on Tuesday until April 23. On March 15, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) took her into custody at her Hyderabadi home.
On behalf of Ms. Kavitha, Special Judge (PC Act) Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Courts issued an order extending her judicial custody.
On April 5, the court gave the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) permission to question the BRS leaders who are being held in the Tihar jail. Judge Bawja denied Ms. Kavitha’s request for an interim bail on Monday; her official bail request hearing is set for April 16.
Daughter of previous Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Ms. Kavitha, called her imprisonment “illegal” and vowed to fight against it.
The ED is looking into a case that the CBI initially brought on the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi’s complaint about irregularities in the Delhi excise policy-2021–2022. The ED has claimed that Ms. Kavitha and other South Group members Sarath Reddy, Raghav Magunta, and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy plotted and received bribes from the top AAP leaders.
The Central agency said in its remand decision that the accused was a partner in M/s Indo Spirits and that the company served as a means of generating further proceeds of crime and recovering the advance kickbacks that had been paid. The accused did this through her proxy, Arun Pillai.
“Also, that she is actually involved in the transfer of PoC of ₹100 crore through her staff/associates Abhishek Boinpaly and Buchi Babu which was paid to the AAP leaders. And that she had established the money laundering ecosystem i.e. M/s Indo Spirits through her proxy which generated proceeds of crime of ₹192.8 crore,” the ED had alleged.
