Delhi: The Delhi Rouse Avenue court on Wednesday reserved its order on regular bail to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in a money laundering case pertaining to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. The court will now pronounce its order in the case on May 6. The Delhi court had earlier sent K Kavitha to a 8-day judicial custody till April 23 on April 15 in the Delhi liquor scam case. The latest development in the case has come up after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday produced the BRS leader before the court on expiry of her 8-day custody granted earlier by the judge.

According to the probe agency sources, the interrogation of K Kavitha focused on the WhatsApp conversations retrieved from the mobile device belonging to Buchi Babu, a co-accused in the case. The agency officials interrogated her about the documentation pertaining to a land transaction, which allegedly resulted in a payment of Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), say reports.

CBI had arrested K Kavitha after she was arrested by the ED

Earlier, BRS leader K Kavitha was arrested by the CBI, while remaining in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) custody. The CBI remand application stated that Kavitha was required to be arrested in the instant case to conduct her custodial interrogation for confronting her with the evidence and witnesses to unearth the larger conspiracy hatched among the accused, suspect persons regarding the formulation and implementation of the excise policy, as well as to establish the money trail of ill-gotten money generated, to unearth the facts which are in her exclusive knowledge and to establish the role of other accused and suspects.

Notably, on March 15, before the CBI, the ED had arrested K Kavitha, in the case of the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam.

Meanwhile, the CBI inquiry was recommended based on the findings of the Delhi Chief Secretary's report filed in July showing prima facie violations of rules in the formulation of the now scrapped Delhi new excise policy.

The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to license holders, the license fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 license 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.