Delhi excise scam: Court seeks CBI and ED’s response on Kavitha's plea

New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) A court here on Friday sought responses from the CBI and the ED on an application filed by BRS leader K Kavitha seeking to be produced physically before the court on the expiry of her judicial custody in the alleged Delhi excise scam on May 7.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja issued notice to the investigating agencies and directed them to file their responses by May 6, when the court will hear the arguments on Kavitha's application.

In her application, the BRS leader's advocate Nitesh Rana told the court that she wishes to be produced physically before the court instead of being produced through video conference from Tihar central jail, where she is currently lodged.

"The applicant is a victim of grave persecution and harassment meted out against her for wholly malafide and vexatious considerations. She is sanguine to expose the falsity, lack of substance and hollowness in the case set up against her in due course of the proceedings," the application claimed.

On April 23, the court had directed the jail authorities to produce Kavitha before it virtually on the expiry of her judicial custody.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Kavitha (46), the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, from her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested her on April 11 in Tihar jail, where she was lodged in the money laundering case being probed by the ED. Her judicial custody in both cases will end on May 7. PTI