Supreme Court refuses to entertain K Kavitha’s petition against arrest

K Kavitha was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday for alleged fraud. (document)

New Delhi:

BRS leader K Kavitha was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last week in the Delhi liquor policy case and the Supreme Court refused to grant relief and asked him to approach the trial court.

A special bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela Trivedi refused to entertain her petition saying she must follow Uniform policy and seek relief from the trial court. The court also said that just because people are politicians or have the ability to seek bail directly from the Supreme Court, they cannot be allowed to seek bail directly from the Supreme Court.

The court directed that once Ms. Kavitha files her bail application, it must be heard by the lower court as soon as possible. It also issued a notice to ED regarding the sections of the money laundering law invoked in her arrest.

Ms Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), was arrested from her home in Hyderabad on Friday and taken to Delhi. Her ER custody ends tomorrow.

Her writ petition was heard in the Supreme Court this morning in the context of an urgent hearing against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Read | Investigating agency files huge claim against K Kavitha, arrested in liquor policy case

Current Chief Minister Kejriwal is the third Aam Aadmi Party leader to be arrested in the case after former deputy Manish Sisodia and Union House member Sanjay Singh.

The education ministry has accused Ms Kavitha and others of “conspiracy” with senior AAP leaders, including Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia, to reap benefits from the now-defunct Delhi excise tax policy.

“In exchange for these benefits, she was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders,” the agency said.