New Delhi: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former Telangana chief minister KCR’s daughter K Kavitha faced a major setback on Monday.
Delhi’s Rouse Avenue district court rejected her interim bail plea in the Delhi excise policy case, maintaining that she cannot be called a ‘vulnerable’ woman.
Observing that Kavitha has been instrumental in influencing witnesses, the court stated there is every likelihood of her continuing to do so in case the relief prayed for is granted.
“The applicant can be, by no standards, said to be a vulnerable woman who could be made a scapegoat for committing the alleged offences. Rather, she is undoubtedly a well-educated and well-placed woman in the society,” noted the court which was considering Kavitha’s argument that being a woman, she falls within the first proviso to Section 45 (1) of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the rigours of twin conditions mentioned in Section 45 of PMLA won’t apply.
Section 45 of PMLA, while advocating stringent bail standard in money-laundering cases, provides an exception to women, and those under 16 years of age.
What couldn’t have been music to Kavitha and her lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s ears, the court contended that the material placed before it prima facie points towards the BRS legislator’s active involvement in commission of the alleged offences and towards her ‘deliberate act’ of causing destruction of evidence, besides attempting to ‘influence witnesses’ of the case.
The court found no substance in the claim of Kavitha’s lawyer seeking her release so that she could take care of her 16-year-old son during his exams.
The court said that Kavitha’s child had his father, an older sibling and maternal aunts (mausis), and there was no apparent reason as to why close relatives can’t provide requisite moral support to the child during the exams.
The court further said the argument that these relatives can’t be a substitute for the mother to address the child’s exam-related anxiety is not a “compelling” reason to grant interim bail.
