Excise policy case: Delhi Court extends judicial custody of BRS Leader K Kavitha till July 18

New Delhi: The Rouse Avenue Court on Friday extended judicial custody of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case related to Delhi excise policy till July 18.

K Kavitha was produced through video conferencing from Tihar Jail. Her counsel vehemently opposed the judicial custody remand.

The Rouse Avenue court is likely to consider the charge sheet filed against her tomorrow.

Special CBI judge Kaveri Baweja extended the judicial custody of K Kavitha for the next 14 days.

During the hearing, her counsel advocate, P Mohit Rao, opposed the prayer for an extension of judicial custody.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already filed a charge sheet against her. It is pending for consideration on July 6.

This is the third supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI in the Delhi Excise Policy case on June 7.

Kavitha is in judicial custody in both the CBI and the money laundering case. She was first arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 15. Thereafter, she was arrested by the CBI on April 11.

ED has also filed the charge sheet against her in the Delhi Excise Policy money laundering case.

The CBI inquiry was recommended based on the findings of the Delhi Chief Secretary's report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials said.

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.