The Supreme Court said there should be no attempt on BRS leader K Kavitha’s part to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence in both cases, for which a bail bond of Rs 10 lakh each was asked to be furnished
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 27) granted bail to BRS leader K Kavitha in the corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. It said there should be no attempt on her part to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence in both cases, for which a bail bond of Rs 10 lakh each was asked to be furnished.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan noted that Kavitha has been in custody for around five months and the probe against her by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate was complete in these cases.
“The appellant is behind bars for close to five months; the likelihood of trial being completed in the near future is impossible,” the SC bench observed, recording the submissions made by the central probe agencies. “The perusal of the proviso reveals that it permits certain category of accused, including woman, to be released on bail without meeting twin test. It will all depend on the facts and circumstances of each case, but when a stature specially provides such benefit, court will have to give specific reasons to deny it.”
The court added: “We, therefore, find that single judge misdirected in denying the benefit of proviso.”
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The top court set aside a July 1 Delhi High Court order denying her bail. The high court had dismissed Kavitha’s bail pleas in both cases, saying she was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy related to the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
Opposing bail to Kavitha, the ED and CBI said she was involved in the destruction of evidence. The ED said beneficial proviso under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since she is a woman does not apply to her. She destroyed phones and reformatted them, it said.
The bench asked why beneficial proviso cannot be applicable to Kavitha. Additional solicitor general SV Raju said this is because she was involved in the destruction of evidence in both cases.
“Her conduct amounts to tampering with evidence and threatening witnesses. Kindly see,” the ASG said. To this, Justice Viswanathan: “Mr Raju, phone is such a private thing. There will be other things in it… There may be partial removal of messages; like I have a habit of deleting messages in school and college groups where so many things are put and it gets messed up.”
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But, Raju argued that one cannot reformat the phone that she was asked to produce. “For tampering with evidence you need (more). Here it only shows formatting,” Justice Viswanathan said.
Raju further said there are call detail records to show Kavitha’s connection with the other accused.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Kavitha, cited the bail granted to Delhi’s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is a co-accused in the cases. “Lordships were pleased to grant bail to co-accused Sisodia. The investigation is complete in both the CBI and ED cases,” he argued.
“493 witnesses, 50,000 pages of documents and 57 accused cumulatively in both cases. She is a sitting MLC, there is no chance that she will flee from justice. The HC has said she will not get beneficial proviso as she is not a vulnerable woman,” he told the court.
Rohatgi further argued that there was no recovery of any sort in terms of moving money to the South group. There are allegations against her of witnesses being threatened, but there is no case, he said.
(With PTI inputs)
