Delhi court adjourns Kavitha bail plea to 4 April even as her counsel calls ED her persecutor

Kavitha, an accused in the infamous Delhi Liquor Policy case, was arrested from her posh Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad by the ED on 15 March after searches by its officials as well as those of the Income Tax Department.

The ED then produced her before the Rouse Avenue Court the next day, which granted it her custody till 26 March.

She moved the interim bail petition the day her custody ended, and the court sent her to judicial remand in Tihar Jail till 9 April.

Related: Kavitha gets nod to wear jewellery, have comfortable mattress in Tihar

The arguments

Kavitha’s counsel, during arguments on her petition for interim bail, accused the ED of being partial and unfair to her and said it was persecuting her.

Abhishek Singhvi said that the ED had been playing a cat-and-mouse game with its tactics of harassment.

He argued that there was no need for the ED to arrest her since she had been cooperating with the probe agency all the time.

He said the ED arrested Kavitha on 15 March, the day when Additional Solicitor General SV Raju told the Supreme Court that they were taking back their assurance that the ED would not arrest Kavitha.

After her arrest, Kavitha withdrew her petition from the Supreme Court. In the petition, she had challenged the issue of summons to her to appear at the ED office since she was allowed certain privileges as she was a woman. With her arrest, the petition had become infructuous.

The ED has accused Kavitha of being the kingpin of the so-called South Group, which allegedly paid ₹100 crore to AAP leaders to tweak the Delhi liquor policy to suit them.

The other members of the South Group, the ED said, were Sarath Chandra Reddy, Raghav Magunta, and MP Magunta Srinivasul Reddy.

The ED accused Kavitha of working hand in glove with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

(Edited by Arkadev Ghoshal)