A Delhi court on Thursday reserved its order on the interim bail petition of Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to the Delhi Excise Policy scam case.
Special CBI judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts will pronounce the order on Monday.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Kavitha, submitted that the court was not ‘straight-jacketed’ by the twin conditions for grant of bail under PMLA and was free to exercise discretion to grant the relief.
He referred to Section 45 of the PMLA, by which bail can be granted to an accused in a money laundering case only if twin conditions were satisfied – there was prima facie satisfaction that the accused has not committed the offence, and that the accused was not likely to commit any offence while on bail.
The provision stated that a woman (and other categories so mentioned) may be released on bail, if the Special Court so directed.
Singhvi prayed that Kavitha should be released on interim bail to be with her 16-year-old son whose exams were commencing from the next month.
Stating that the child was neither in arms nor a toddler, Singhvi said he was seeking the moral and emotional support of his mother. There was trauma and shock about what has happened and there was silence, added the Counsel.
He said the perspective of a mother was not substitutable by the father or sister or brother or even maasi.
Appearing for the national agency, Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain submitted that ‘woman’ under the proviso of Section 45 of PMLA covered those women who did not have agency and not the ones who were ‘leading politicians’ in a state.
He argued that the accused in question was one of the prime movers of giving bribes. She was not only part of arranging kickbacks in advance, but also a beneficiary through Indo Spirits.
He said the agency had had substantial material, including WhatsApp documents, to support its claims. There was direct proceed of crimes through bank accounts, where she was a beneficiary.
The accused was involved in the destruction of evidence as she deleted contents and formatted her mobile phones before handing them over to ED.
When she was confronted on the same, Kavitha evaded questions. On March 11, she said she will produce the remaining phones. On March 12, she presented nine phones. Preliminary examination revealed that the phones were formatted and had no data.
As per the Counsel, Kavitha said she would furnish the devices and documents on March 16. Between March 11 and 16, on March 14 and 15, the forensic report suggested that she formatted and deleted the phones. Four phones were completely wiped out. A huge amount of more than 100 devices was wiped out and formatted by the accused persons.
This was an instance of destruction of evidence. The agency was continuing its investigation. ED was on the verge of making crucial breakthroughs and any kind of interim relief at this stage could hamper the investigation, said the Counsel, adding that he has not yet touched on her role.
Hossain said that there were witnesses, who were either forced or coerced by Kavitha to retract their statement. He alleged that on the behest of Kavitha, an attempt was made to make one of the main witnesses, her CA (Arun Pillai), to retract his statement.