Amidst the corridors of justice in New Delhi, the Rouse Avenue court convened on Tuesday, April 9, to deliberate upon the fate of BRS MLC Kavitha, ensnared last month by the Enforcement Directorate in the labyrinthine Delhi liquor imbroglio. The judicious gaze of the court decreed an extension of Kavitha’s judicial seclusion until the 23rd of April, 2024.
Kavitha, an erstwhile luminary in the MLC echelons, stood before the court today, her countenance a canvas of uncertainty, as the Enforcement Directorate ushered her into the judicial arena. The ED, in its pursuit of truth, petitioned the court, contending that the investigation into the Delhi liquor policy’s labyrinthine channels was at a “pivotal juncture,” and any reprieve granted to Kavita could potentially obfuscate the investigative odyssey.
In rebuttal, Kavita’s legal emissary proffered before the court a contrarian narrative, asserting that the ED’s supplication for an extended custodial tenure bore no fresh revelatory fruits. Following a dialectical tussle between the prosecution and defense, the court, in its sagacious decree, mandated an elongation of Kavitha’s judicial sequestration by an additional fortnight.
Emphatically asserting her innocence amidst the cauldron of accusations, Kavitha vociferated her stance before the court. “I am but a hapless pawn in the Delhi liquor imbroglio, bereft of culpability,” she avowed. “The cacophony of media trials has eclipsed the earnest endeavors of the CBI and ED investigations. My privacy, once sacrosanct, now lies trampled in the wake of relentless scrutiny. I have, on four separate occasions, traversed the corridors of justice, laying bare my bank accounts and extending unbridled cooperation. My cellular devices, erstwhile companions, now languish in the custody of investigative authorities, unjustly accused of their demise. My domicile and offices have become recurring sites of unwarranted intrusion over the past thirty months, subjecting me to unrelenting torment,” she lamented.
In riposte to the ED’s aspersions of witness tampering, Kavitha, buoyed by her conviction, retorted, “Wherefore was I spared the yoke of arrest during the zenith of our political ascendancy? It seems a curious coincidence that ninety-five percent of the ED and CBI’s targets are drawn from the opposition ranks. A change in political allegiance oft heralds an end to investigative pursuits. The judiciary, a bastion of hope, bears the weight of our collective aspirations,” she averred, pledging unwavering cooperation in the ongoing investigation.
The extension of Kavitha’s judicial sequestration comes in the wake of a judicial pronouncement a day prior, wherein a city court in Delhi, presided by Special Judge Kaveri Baweja, rebuffed the entreaty for interim relief tendered by the BRS luminary in the Delhi excise policy’s money laundering quagmire. The court, cognizant of the exigencies at play, deemed the present juncture unfit for the dispensation of interim respite to Kavitha.
In rebuttal to Kavitha’s plea, the ED levelled allegations of evidence tampering and witness intimidation, casting aspersions upon her integrity. The investigative behemoth delineated Kavitha’s pivotal role within the “South Group,” embroiled in the alleged dispensation of kickbacks amounting to Rs 100 crore to the ruling AAP regime in Delhi, in exchange for a sizeable stake in the city’s liquor licenses.
Kavitha, aged forty-six, was apprehended by the ED from her Banjara Hills abode in Hyderabad on the fifteenth of March. Subsequently, she was remanded to the custody of the ED for a duration of seven days, a term that found extensions in subsequent judicial pronouncements.
