New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted conditional bail to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha—who was arrested by the ED in March and then by CBI a month later— in the Delhi liquor policy scam. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ex-deputy, Manish Sisodia, were also named in the case.
With this bail, Kavitha becomes the second big opposition leader to get bail in this case after Sisodia, who was arrested in February last year and released earlier this month. The apex court had noted a delay in trial in Sisodia’s case and had said he could not be jailed for an ‘unlimited time.’
In case of Kavitha, the court set aside Delhi High Court order which had rejected her bail petition previously. The SC directed her to furnish a bail bond of Rs 10 lakh each and not to influence witnesses, while granting bail.
“We find the investigation is complete. As such, custody of appellant is not necessary… she is in jail for five months and, as observed with Sisodia, likelihood of trial be in near future is impossible…” the court said, as quoted by NDTV.
The court had also asked the both the probe agencies to show what “material” they had to prove that Kavitha was involved in the alleged scam.
“The law provides special treatment for women while considering bail applications”, the court noted as it referred to provisions in Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act that permits certain category of accused, including women, to be released on bail.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal—who has also been arrested by both ED and CBI—continues to be in jail. While he has secured bail in the ED case from the apex court, but hasn’t applied for bail in the case filed by the CBI.
