Excise policy case: Delhi court extends K Kavitha’s judicial custody till May 20

A Delhi court extended the judicial custody of BRS leader K Kavitha until May 20 in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged excise policy scam that also involves Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Special Judge for ED and CBI cases, Kaveri Baweja, extended Kavitha’s custody after she was presented before the court as her previous judicial custody expired. The judge also reserved the order on whether to take cognisance of a new charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) until May 20.

During the hearing, the ED argued that there was sufficient evidence in the prosecution complaint against Kavitha to warrant a trial. The ED filed the nearly 200-page prosecution complaint, along with annexures, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Friday.

Kavitha, a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party, along with three employees from Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd—Damodar Sharma, Prince Kumar, and Chanpreet Singh—who managed the AAP’s Goa assembly election campaign, and Arvind Singh, a former employee of India Ahead news channel, have been named as accused in the latest charge sheet.

The ED arrested 46-year-old Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, on March 15 from her residence in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. Chanpreet Singh was arrested on April 15 for allegedly managing cash funds for AAP’s Goa election campaign in 2022. The Chariot Productions employees are accused of handling bribe funds from the ‘South Group’ through Angadiyas and the hawala route for AAP’s campaign.

Arvind Singh, the commercial head and production controller at India Ahead, was arrested by the CBI last May for allegedly transferring funds considered kickbacks in the scam. This is the seventh charge sheet filed by the ED in this case, which has seen 18 arrests so far, including that of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who received interim bail from the Supreme Court on Friday.

The ED has claimed that Kavitha was a key member of the ‘South Group,’ accused of paying the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rs 100 crore in kickbacks in exchange for a significant share of liquor licenses in Delhi under the now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22. The agency described Kavitha as “one of the kingpins, a key conspirator, and beneficiary of the Delhi excise policy scam.”

The excise case involves alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of Delhi’s 2021-22 excise policy. Following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities was launched. The ED subsequently filed its money laundering case on August 22, 2022, based on the CBI FIR from August 17, 2022.