The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to BRS leader K Kavitha in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. Kavitha, the daughter of BRS chief and former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, was denied bail by the Delhi High Court on July 1. A bench of Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma said that the material collected in the course of the investigation revealed that she was one of the chief conspirators in the entire conspiracy relating to the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped new excise policy.
Kavitha had petitioned the Delhi High Court after a special court here on May 6 turned down her regular bail pleas. She was first arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from her Hyderabad home on March 15 and brought to Delhi and later by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on April 11 when she was in Tihar Jail. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing K Kavitha, requested bail by stating that the investigations against her by the CBI and the ED have already been concluded.
He also cited the Supreme Court's decision to grant bail to AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who is a co-accused in the same cases. However, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the investigating agencies, alleged that Kavitha had destroyed or formatted her mobile phone, which, according to him, amounted to tampering with evidence.