Delhi liquor policy case: SC rejects BRS leader Kavitha's plea against ED summons

NEW DELHI: In a setback for Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected her plea, seeking protection from arrest and challenging the summons issued by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi did not give any interim relief to her on protection from arrest and refused to stay the ED summons.
The Supreme Court has also tagged her plea, which said that a woman can't be summoned for questioning before ED in office and that her questioning should take place at her residence, with other similar petitions. The matter has been listed for hearing after three weeks.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, submitted before the bench that it was the question whether she would be interrogated at ED office or her residence.
The top court then agreed to examine the legal point if a woman can be summoned to the ED office under CrPC/PMLA. It also tagged the petition with a similar plea filed by Nalini Chidambaram, a senior advocate and wife of Congress leader P Chidambaram, and Ruchira Banerjee, wife of Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed it saying that Abhishek Banerjee's matter is different.
Kavitha's plea said her name has not been mentioned in the FIR registered by the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, in which Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia has been arrested.
Kavitha's counsel had previously told the court that she had appeared before the ED earlier this month but the repeated summons were contrary to law because the petitioner was a woman. "That despite the petitioner not being named in the FIR, certain members of the incumbent ruling political party at the Centre made scandalous statements linking the petitioner to the Delhi excise policy...," said the plea.
On March 15, the top court agreed to hear her plea. She was last quizzed for about 10 hours on March 21, which was her third day of deposition before the Enforcement Directorate. Before that on March 11, the 44-year-old BRS leader deposed before the ED to record her statement and was summoned again on March 16 for questioning.
According to official sources, Kavitha, during her questioning by the ED, was confronted with the statements made by Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, who has been arrested in the case, apart from those of a few other accused.
Kavitha accused the ED of acting in "extremely shameful" manner and as per a "larger conspiracy orchestrated at the behest of the members of the incumbent ruling party at the Centre".