The Supreme Court has given relief to Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader Kavita in the Delhi Excise Policy Scam case. On Tuesday, she came out of Tihar Jail after about 5 months. During the hearing, the court raised questions on the way the investigating agencies work. The special thing is that the apex court has also termed deleting messages from the phone as ‘normal’. The Delhi High Court had refused to grant her bail.
The CBI and ED were accusing Kavita of tampering with evidence. The agencies alleged that she had deleted messages and formatted her phone. According to a report in the Times of India, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court said that deleting messages from time to time is a ‘normal practice’ and cannot be considered a crime unless supported by other evidence.
A bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Vishwanathan was hearing the case. ASG SV Raju said that Kavita’s conduct was equivalent to tampering with evidence. This was opposed by Kavita’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi. He said that people use phones like toys and keep changing devices. His client had formatted the phone because she had bought a new phone and had given the old phone to the servant.
The court raised questions on the agencies
Both the central agencies faced severe criticism over the “fairness” of their investigation, with the apex court saying it was “pained to see this state of affairs”. “You will pick and choose anyone?” the bench said, referring to a witness in the case. “The prosecution has to be fair. You cannot take action selectively. Is this fairness? A person who incriminates himself has been made a witness. Tomorrow you will arrest anyone at your will by making him an accused and release anyone at your will? Very reasonable and rational prudence!”
Rohatgi requested bail saying that the investigation of both the agencies against his client has been completed. Rohatgi said that he has been in custody for five months in the ED money laundering case and more than four months in the CBI case. He also cited the Supreme Court’s August 9 decision granting bail to co-accused and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia in both the cases.
The ED arrested Kavitha (46) from her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15. The CBI had arrested her on April 11 in a corruption case linked to the alleged scam. Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has been accused of being part of the ‘South Group’, an alleged gang of businessmen and politicians who allegedly paid a bribe of Rs 100 crore to Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party in exchange for liquor licences. Kavitha has been continuously denying these allegations.
(With agency input)
