Court exempts Sheila Dikshit aide's wife in black money case

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A court here Monday granted exemption to Ritu Verma, the wife of former bureaucrat and ex-chief minister Sheila Dikshit's aide R.K. Verma, from personally appearing in a black money case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D.K. Sharma granted exemption to Ritu Verma after her counsel told the court she was abroad now and due to some work will not be able to attend court proceedings.

The court posted the matter for March 2 for further hearing.

Ritu Verma was summoned as an accused in the case last month after the court took cognizance of the prosecution initiated by the income tax department against her.

Her husband R.K. Verma -- said to have been a favourite of Sheila Dikshit -- served as the Delhi government's power secretary in 2013.

Detailing Ritu Verma's source of allegedly unaccounted-for money stashed in banks in the British Virgin Islands, the income tax department alleged that she floated a company, Windsor Incorporation Inc, of which she was the sole proprietor.

Ritu Verma had used the official residential address of her husband when Windsor was being launched. Her bank account in the British Virgin Islands carries the same address. In October 2013, the Bharatiya Janata Party had demanded a probe into the matter.

R.K. Verma was transferred Dec 20, 2013, to the department of higher education after Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal became chief minister. Subsequently, Verma took voluntary retirement.