Excise case: CBI gets court permission to quiz BRS leader Kavitha in Tihar

New Delhi: The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi on Friday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to quiz Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha during judicial custody in Tihar Jail.

CBI through application, sought court permission to interrogate or quiz and record the statement of BRS leader K Kavitha regarding whatsapp chats recovered from Buchi Babu's phone and documents regarding a land deal, post which 100 crores where allegedly paid to Aam Aadmi Party in kickbacks.

Noted the submissions, the Special Judge Kaveri Baweja allowed CBI petition and permitted concerned officials to visit Tihar for the purpose in any day of coming week.

CBI submitted that a notice U/S 41A Cr.P.C. was issued on 20.02.2024 to Ms. K. Kavitha for joining the investigation on 26.02.2024, but she did not join the investigation and could not be examined. She was subsequently arrested by the ED in the above mentioned connected case on 15.03.2024 and is currently in judicial custody in the said case. It is thus submitted that since Ms. K. Kavitha is required to be examined in connection with the evidence which has surfaced during further investigation of the case in respect of her involvement in the matter.

The Rouse Avenue Court on March 26, 2024, sent BRS MLC K Kavitha to judicial custody till April 9, 2024. She was arrested recently in connection with Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) arrested K Kavitha MLC, Telangana Legislative Council on March 15, 2024, in the case of Delhi liquor policy scam. A search was also conducted at the residence of K Kavitha in Hyderabad on the same day. During the search proceedings, the ED officials were obstructed by the relatives and associates of K Kavitha, said ED through a statement.

ED investigation revealed that K Kavitha along with others conspired with the top leaders of AAP including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia for getting favours in the Delhi Excise policy-formulation and implementation. In exchange of these favours, she was allegedly involved in paying Rs 100 crore to the AAP leaders.

By the acts of corruption and conspiracy in the formulation and implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, a continuous stream of illegal funds in the form of kickback, from the wholesalers was generated for the AAP. Further, K Kavitha and her associates were to recover the proceeds of crime paid in advance to AAP and to further generate profits/proceeds of crime from this entire conspiracy, stated ED.

Till date, the ED has conducted searches on 245 locations across the country including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and other places. 15 persons including Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nair from AAP have been arrested in the case so far.

ED has filed one prosecution complaint and five supplementary complaints in the case so far. Further, out of proceeds of crime generated, assets worth Rs 128.79 crore have been traced so far and have been attached vide provisional attachment orders dated January 24, 2023, and September 3, 2023. Both the attachment orders have been confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority, New Delhi.

ED has filed its first chargesheet in the case. The agency said it has so far undertaken nearly 200 search operations in this case after filing FIR taking cognisance of a CBI case which was registered on the recommendation of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor.

The CBI inquiry was recommended 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 had 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 alleged loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer