NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear MLC K Kavitha’s plea challenging her arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case relating to Delhi excise policy irregularities matter on March 22.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna and also comprising Justices M M Sundresh and Dipankar Dutta, would hear Kavitha’s plea on Friday. Her lawyer, P Mohith Rao, termed her arrest as “illegal, unconstitutional, and arbitrary.”
It is also to be noted that on March 15, during a hearing in the SC, Kavitha’s another plea challenging the ED’s powers whether the agency has the power to summon her in light of a July 2022 judgment in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case was taken up, and the matter was adjourned for March 19, Tuesday. But on the same day, she was arrested by the central probe agency at 5:30 p.m. while it was conducting a raid and questioning her at her Hyderabad residence.
On March 16, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court in its order remanded the BRS leader to seven-day custody to the ED for her alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor scam case.
Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) M K Nagpal directed that Kavitha would remain in ED custody for a period of 7 days, till March 23, 2024.
During her production before the courtroom, Kavitha termed her arrest as illegal and unconstitutional, and said, “We will fight it (the case) out in the court,” she said.
The Rouse Avenue court had earlier directed the ED that the accused would be next produced before it on March 23. Kavitha had termed her arrest as blatant abuse of power.
The ED, in its allegation, claimed Kavitha was linked to a “South Group” lobby of liquor traders who were trying to play a larger role under the now scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.
It has been alleged by the ED that one of the accused in the case, Vijay Nair, received kickbacks to the tune of at least Rs 100 crores on behalf of AAP leaders from the “South Group”, allegedly controlled by Sarath Reddy, Kavitha, and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy. She claimed innocence in the entire case.
‘Arrest illegal and unconstitutional’
Kavitha’s lawyer, P Mohith Rao, termed her arrest as “illegal, unconstitutional, and arbitrary.” On March 16, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court in its order remanded the BRS leader to seven-day custody to the ED for her alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor scam case.