BRS working president KT Rama Rao expressed hope that his sister Kavitha will get bail next week similar to how Sisodia got it.
Published Aug 09, 2024 | 7:02 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 09, 2024 | 7:02 PM
Kavitha moves Supreme Court.
BRS leaders in Telangana are entertaining the first stirrings of hope that MLC K Kavitha — daughter of former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao — might get bail after the Supreme Court gave bail to former Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Friday, 9 August, in an alleged liquor policy scam case.
BRS working president KT Rama Rao, in an informal interaction with reporters later in the day, expressed hope that his sister Kavitha will get bail next week similar to how Sisodia got it.
He said there was no need to keep her in jail as the charge sheet had been filed in the court.
KTR said a fresh bail application has been filed in the court in Delhi.
The former Telangana minister expressed concern over her health as she had lost 11 kg of weight after her incarceration and fell sick recently.
Though Sisodia’s bail has nothing to do with Kavitha’s despite the fact that both of them had been arrested in the alleged Delhi exercise policy scam by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, the BRS seems to believe that the court might take a sympathetic view of Kavitha’s failing health to grant bail to her.
The apex court, while granting bail to Sisodia, who was arrested 17 months ago and has been in jail ever since, said: “There is not even the remotest possibility of the trial being concluded in the near future” and that he was deprived of the right to a speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution which guaranteed right to protection of life and personal liberty.
When it comes to Kavitha, she has been in jail after the ED arrested her on 15 March at her residence in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad and flew her to Delhi, despite protests by the BRS leaders.
KTR even entered into an argument with the ED officials over the way they arrested her without a transit warrant. The CBI arrested her even while she was in judicial custody at Tihar Jail on 11 April in the same Delhi liquor policy case.
Ever since the ED began mentioning her involvement subtly in the case while arresting AAP leaders and other accused and the CBI began showing interest and even recorded her statement as a witness in December 2022, a political narrative has been built around the sequence of the events that culminated her arrest on 15 March.
By that time, the BRS was dethroned and the Congress came to power in Telangana state.
In fact, till the Assembly elections which took place towards the end of November 2023, the political discourse was that though the ED suspected Kavitha’s involvement in the liquor scam, it was not arresting her because it had no clearance from the BJP’s central leadership.
It was said that the BJP wanted to keep the Sword of Damocles hanging on the BRS — that the ED would arrest her anytime — to subjugate the pink party politically.
The BRS too toned down its attack on the BJP which gave rise to the suspicion that there was some kind of an understating between the two parties.
According to analysts, it had done more harm to the BRS which had to pay the price of losing power to the Congress in the state with voters shifting to the Congress.
The BJP also seemed to have burnt its fingers as unlike in the rest of the country, the BJP’s stock was up in Telangana but its “covert friendship” with BRS had made it a suspect in the eyes of the people who restricted its tally of seats in the Assembly elections to just eight though the party had expected more.
Kavitha’s arrest seemed like the BJP wanted to shed the image that it was BRS’ invisible “friend” and with Lok Sabha elections approaching fast.
The saffron party is understood to have given the green signal to the ED to arrest her in an apparent bid to wash off the pink stain that got stuck to its saffron robes.
Not losing much time, the ED swung into action and arrested her on 15 March and her petitions in the trial court and Delhi High Court were dismissed. Her petition for interim bail to be with her son as he was preparing for the examination was also dismissed.
Even though there is no empirical evidence that the political charade that was being played out had anything to do with the court cases, the prospects of the BJP in Telangana witnessed a growth in the Lok Sabha elections after her arrest.
The saffron party picked up eight seats, a record of sorts for it, from four seats in 2019 while the BRS drew blank.
In fact, the situation ahead of the Lok Sabha polls appeared that the BJP might land up to 10 to 11 seats, but the party could not make the best use of the prevailing conducive atmosphere to increase its tally.
There were allegations that the BJP’s improvement in performance took place after the BRS ensured the transfer of votes to the BJP in the hope that the saffron party would ensure the release of Kavitha from prison.
Now Kavitha is facing two investigation agencies, ED and CBI. Between the two, the ED’s case is a tough nut to crack because she was arrested under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) where the onus of proving not guilty rests on the accused.
Apart from this, in normal cases, bail is granted after the expiry of 90 days.
However, in the majority of PMLA cases, it is not allowed because the provisions of the Act are very stringent as they deal with the laundering of huge amounts of money for illegal purposes.
In some cases, even if the prosecution agencies do not oppose granting bail, the courts may not grant it if they are not satisfied with the explanation given. The court should feel convinced that the evidence before it does not constitute serious material to consider granting bail.
Since the Supreme Court had reiterated that “bail is the rule and jail is an exception” in Sisodia’s case, it is expected that when Kavitha’s petition for bail comes up, the court may take the same position and the other consideration which it took in Sisodia’s case — the trial might take too long to complete during which time the accused has the right to exercise article 21 of the Constitution, which guaranteed protection of life and personal liberty.
The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on Monday dismissed Kavitha’s default bail application after she withdrew it.
In the petition that she withdrew, she contended that she became eligible for bail since the CBI failed to file a complete charge sheet within 60 days.
It was said that she wanted to file a fresh petition for bail on more convincing grounds. Kavitha’s two earlier bail petitions — one in the Rouse Avenue Court and the other in the High Court — were dismissed.
Kavitha has been accused of conspiring with the “South Group” and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and made payment of ₹100 crore as kickbacks to the AAP in return for liquor licences.
The investigation agencies accused Kavitha of playing a role in the transfer of the money to Goa through Hawala routes for use in elections by the AAP in 2022.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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