The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Bharat Rashtra Samithi legislator K. Kavitha in connection with parallel cases registered against her by the ED and CBI over the alleged ₹100-crore Delhi excise policy case, as the bench questioned the agencies' “pick-and-choose” method.
The bench, which included Justice K.V. Viswanathan, told additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju, appearing for the government, that the investigators had produced no material to justify the plea for keeping her in jail for so long, as it questioned the logic of making one of the co-accused in the case an approver and then turning that very person into a “witness” for the prosecution.
“Prosecution has to be fair in its dealings. There is a person who incriminated himself, has been made a witness by you. So tomorrow you will pick up anyone as you please and leave anyone as you choose?” asked Justice B.R. Gavai, who headed the bench.
He added: “You must be fair as prosecution. You cannot pick and choose any accused. What is this fairness?” the bench remarked.
The court was referring to one of the co-accused, Raghav Magunta Reddy, who was initially made an accused by the CBI and then allowed to turn approver and prosecution witness. “We are sorry to see the state of affairs. If he (Reddy) has a role, his role is equal to that of the petitioner,” Justice Gavai said.
The bench noted that according to the prosecution’s claims, it was Reddy who first met Arvind Kejriwal, during which the Delhi chief minister is alleged to have referred to Kavitha, who was also interested in the alleged deal.
It was pointed out that according to the prosecution, a meeting was held at Reddy’s residence during which some of the illegal transactions took place. Yet, the investigating agencies chose to make Reddy an approver and witness.
Justice Viswanathan said that since Reddy had been given the status of a witness, his testimony would have a bearing on the cases, even though according to the prosecution he was directly involved in the offence.
Appearing for Kavitha, advocate Mukul Rohatgi cited the instance of the apex court granting bail to co-accused and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to seek parity for his client.
He said Kavitha had been in jail for over five months and the trial was likely to be delayed as 493 witnesses had to be examined, 50,000 pages of documents studied and 57 accused persons questioned.
The bench asked the appellant not to make attempts to tamper with evidence or influence the witnesses. She will also have to deposit her passport with the trial judge.
On July 1, Delhi High Court had rejected her bail, following which she filed the present appeal. The Enforcement Directorate arrested her on March 15 and the CBI followed suit on April 11.