BRS leader K Kavitha, lodged in Tihar jail, taken to DDU hospital

She was arrested by the CBI on April 11 in the Delhi Excise Policy case, before which, she was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 15

Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha, who is lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the Excise Policy case, was admitted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.

Kavitha has been admitted after her health deteriorated.

She was arrested by the CBI on April 11 in the Delhi Excise Policy case. Prior to this, she was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 15.

On July 12, the Rouse Avenue court deferred hearing on K Kavitha's plea seeking default bail in Delhi Excise policy case.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja listed the matter on July 22 for further hearing.

It was submitted that the applicant seeking default as the CBI has failed to file a complete charge sheet within a mandatory period of 60 days. It was also submitted that she should be granted default bail in the matter and interim bail during the pendency of the present bail application.

Notably, Kavitha's earlier regular bail applications were dismissed by the trial court and High Court.

CBI filed a charge sheet against her on June 6. The same is pending for cognizance on July 15.

The Rouse Avenue Court on Friday extended the judicial custody of K Kavitha till July 18. K Kavitha was produced through video conferencing from Tihar Jail. Her counsel vehemently opposed the judicial custody remand.

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 an alleged loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer.