New Delhi: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Ok Kavitha on Monday moved the Supreme Court difficult her arrest in a money-laundering case associated to the Delhi excise coverage irregularities matter.
Kavitha was arrested by the ED group on Friday in Hydrabad and was later delivered to Delhi. Kavitha was arrested after a day-long questioning adopted by a raid at her residence.
Earlier on March 16, the Rouse Avenue Court despatched Kavitha to custodial remand till March 23, 2024.
Ok. Kavitha was produced within the courtroom beneath heavy safety within the presence of numerous media individuals, attorneys and social gathering employees.
Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, together with Advocate Nitesh Rana, appeared for the Ok Kavitha earlier than the courtroom. Advocates Wajeeh Shafiq, Anuj Tiwari and Deepak Nagar additionally appeared for accused Ok Kavitha within the matter. However, Special ED Counsel Zoheb Hossain and Special Public Prosecutor Naveen Kumar Matta appeared for the Enforcement Directorate.
Chaudhari argued that this arrest was a blatant abuse of energy. They have clearly violated the Supreme Court orders, which have protected us. He additional said that, as per the regulation, there’s a keep on her arrest till March 19.
He additionally added that the vindictiveness and malafide on the a part of the Enforcement Directorate are additional writ massive from the truth that regardless of the pendency of the difficulty/prayer earlier than the Supreme Court that the cellphones of the petitioner couldn’t have been seized, resulting in invasion of the appropriate to privateness, the officers have gone forward and on the time of the purported search on March 15, 2024.
ED additional argued that it’s an admitted place that there isn’t a written interim order of their favour The assertion that we gave was that we might give 10 days earlier than issuing a summons. If there’s a prayer for no coercive motion, and till there’s an specific order, you’ll be able to’t presume an interim order. There is not any dispute between events that the endeavor was by no means that no coercive can be taken in opposition to the petitioner.
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In the arrest order, the involved ED investigation officer mentioned, “I believe that Kalvakuntla Kavitha, w/o DR Anil Kumar, residing in Hyderabad, Telengana-500034, has been guilty of an offence punishable under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (15 of 2003).”
“Now, therefore, in the exercise of the power conferred upon me under subsection (1) of Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (915 of 2003), I hereby arrest the said Kalvakuntla Kavitha at 05.20 pm on 15.03.2024 and she has been informed of the grounds for her arrest. A copy of the grounds of arrest (containing 14 pages) has been served upon her.”
The motion comes nearly two months after the ED issued a summons to the 45-year-old daughter of former Telangana CM and BRS chief Ok Chandrashekhar Rao.
She was questioned 3 times on this case final 12 months and the central company recorded her assertion beneath the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The BRS MLC has asserted previously that she had carried out nothing unsuitable and alleged that the BJP-led central authorities was “using” the ED because the BJP couldn’t acquire “backdoor entry” into Telangana. Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation had additionally questioned Kavitha on this case. The ED case of cash laundering was filed with cognizance of the CBI FIR.
According to ED, Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who was arrested final 12 months within the case, “is one of the key persons in the entire scam involving payments of huge kickbacks and formation of the biggest cartel of the South Group.”
Pillai, alongside together with his associates, was allegedly coordinating with numerous individuals to execute the political understanding between the South Group and a pacesetter of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the probe company mentioned.
ED has filed its first chargesheet within the case. The company mentioned it has up to now undertaken almost 200 search operations on this case after submitting an FIR taking cognizance of a CBI case that was registered on the advice of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor.
The CBI inquiry was beneficial primarily based on the findings of the Delhi Chief Secretary’s report filed in July exhibiting prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officers mentioned.
The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities have been dedicated whereas modifying the excise coverage, undue favours have been prolonged to licence holders, the licence price was waived or decreased and the L-1 licence was prolonged with out the competent authority’s approval. The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” positive factors to the accused officers and made false entries of their books of account to evade detection, the probe companies mentioned.
As per the allegations, the Excise Department had determined to refund the earnest cash deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a profitable tenderer in opposition to the set guidelines. Even although there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence charges was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, as a result of COVID-19, the probe company mentioned and there was an alleged lack of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer.
This report is auto-generated from ANI information service. ThePrint holds no duty for its content material.
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