Excise policy cases: SC to hear BRS leader Kavitha's pleas on August 12

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on August 12 the pleas filed by BRS leader K Kavitha challenging the Delhi High Court's verdict denying her bail in corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

The high court had on July 1 dismissed Kavitha's bail pleas in both the cases, saying she was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy related to the formation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

According to the cause list of August 12 uploaded on the apex court's website, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan is slated to hear her petitions.

While dismissing her bail pleas, the high court had said no case for grant of regular bail was made for now as the investigation is at a crucial stage.

It had rejected her plea for relief on the grounds of being a woman, saying as a well-educated person and a former MP, she cannot be equated to a vulnerable female, and the court cannot lose sight of the "serious allegations" against her.

This "court is of the opinion that K Kavitha was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy hatched in relation to formulation and implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22," the high court had said.

It had noted the material collected by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has pointed out that Kavitha was one of the chief conspirators in the entire conspiracy relating to the formulation and implementation of the policy.

In the high court, Kavitha had challenged the May 6 order of a trial court which had dismissed her bail applications in the CBI's corruption case as well as the ED's money-laundering case.

The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and implementation of the policy.

The ED arrested Kavitha (46) from her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested her in the Tihar jail.

In her bail plea filed in the high court in the ED case, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, had said she had "nothing to do" with the excise policy and there was a criminal conspiracy against her "orchestrated by the ruling party at the Centre with the active connivance of the ED".