The CBI on Thursday arrested Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in connection with a corruption case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, officials said.
The federal agency had arrested 46-year-old Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, from her Banjara hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15.
In a post on X in Hindi, Sunita said her husband got bail on June 20 in the excise policy-linked money laundering case and the Enforcement Directorate immediately got a stay.
With his three-week temporary bail for poll campaign ending, Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be back in Tihar Jail on Sunday as a court here put off till June 5 its order on his plea seeking interim bail on medical grounds.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has directed the chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party for political advertisements it published in the guise of government advertisements, official sources said.
Failing to get any reprieve from the Delhi high court, the Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will move the Supreme Court soon against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and maintained the excise policy case was the 'biggest political conspiracy of the country' to finish the party.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday told the Delhi high court that the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was based on 'perverse' findings as it did not consider the material demonstrating his 'neck deep involvement' in the offence of money laundering linked to the alleged excise scam.
Hazare in a statement accused Kejriwal of betraying the trust of crores of countrymen and rued that political ambitions destroyed the 2011 anti-corruption movement.
In a massive setback to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed his petition challenging his arrest in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise scam, saying there was no contravention of legal provisions.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party remained tight-lipped about whether the chief minister will appear before the Enforcement Directorate or not.
"The BJP and the Congress are treating Mishra as Harishchandra... He is same the person who had called Modi an 'Inter-Services Intelligence agent'," Sanjay Singh of the AAP said.
"Our party is stronger than the Congress in the state. While the Congress won 40 seats in panchayat polls, we scored a victory in 83 panchayats. AAP got over 40 lakh votes in these polls, where 1600 party candidates contested," Singh, AAP's UP in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday told the Delhi high court that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, arrested in a money laundering case linked with the alleged excise scam, cannot claim "immunity" from arrest on the ground of upcoming elections as law is applied equally to him and an aam aadmi.
The ED also alleged that Kejriwal, during his questioning, said AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair 'did not report to him' but to his cabinet colleagues Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj and that his interaction with Nair was 'limited'.
The agency made the disclosure in a chargesheet filed by it on May 10 against former Telangana chief minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Chandrashekar Rao's MLC daughter K Kavitha and four others.
Yadav was earlier called for questioning on March 4 but he had not appeared before the CBI sleuths, following which a fresh date was given for Saturday, they said.
Anand is still "technically" a minister although he has resigned, officials said.
The high court said he was a very powerful and influential person within the power corridors of the Delhi government as he had the responsibility of 18 portfolios in the city dispensation.
'Kejriwal could have easily deputed someone to step in as chief minister, but being the authoritative and self-centered personality that he is, he chose not to do it.' 'If the AAP loses Delhi, where it has a huge majority, the only one to blame would be Kejriwal,' asserts Ramesh Menon.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the deletion of advocate Bansuri Swaraj's name from its order of granting bail to AAP leader Sanjay Singh after the Enforcement Directorate said her name got added to the list due to an "inadvertent error".
The Delhi high court on Tuesday restrained the Aam Aadmi Party and several of its leaders from levelling "false" allegations against Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and his family, after they claimed that he was involved in a Rs 1,400 crore scam.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta is likely to hear the matter.
"Despite two years of probe, the ED has not been able to find even one paisa in evidence. They raided chief minister's residence but got just Rs 73,000," she said.
The two federal agencies came in for some sharp criticism over the "fairness" of their investigation, with the apex court observing "Sorry to see this state of affairs".
The ED has filed two complaints before the magisterial court, seeking Kejriwal's prosecution for skipping multiple summonses issued to him in the case.
Sources in his Aam Aadmi Party said his legal team would request the high court to hear the matter urgently, preferably on Sunday.
A Delhi court on Monday sent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to judicial custody till April 15, noting the Enforcement Directorate's contention that his release could hamper the investigation into the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Liquor businessman Magunta Sreenivasalu Reddy (a TDP MP) met Kejriwal on March 16, 2021 in his office at the Delhi Secretariat and requested him to provide support in his liquor business in the national capital by tweaking the Excise Policy 2021-22 which was then in the making, the agency said in its chargesheet against K Kavitha.
The Delhi high court will pronounce on Tuesday its verdict on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate seeking a stay on the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise scam.
Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the same case and later by the CBI which was probing corruption charges, stepped out after spending 155 days in Tihar jail. The AAP supremo, who was earlier granted three-week interim bail in the ED case, was given a resounding welcome by his party leaders and supporters who were drenched in heavy rain. Addressing party workers from the top of an SUV, Kejriwal, sporting a half-sleeve blue shirt, raised 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Vande Mataram' slogans.
Kejriwal has filed two separate petitions challenging the denial of bail and against his arrest by the CBI in the corruption case filed by the central agency.
The ED's counsel also contended that Kavitha was a co-conspirator and a beneficiary of the excise "scam" and the proceeds of crime were directly going to her.
Addressing a press conference, Singh said, "There is an attempt to break the morale of CM Kejriwal.
K Kavitha dared PM Modi to put her and other leaders behind the bars.
Kejriwal has skipped all the summonses so far, terming them "illegal".
The application was filed before special judge MK Nagpal, who posted the matter for hearing on Saturday, his advocate Rishikesh said.
'It could backfire on the BJP and boost the Opposition parties.'
Justifying his arrest, the ED said Kejriwal had been arrested bona fide and not for any mala fide or extraneous reasons.
The Aam Aadmi Party has alleged misappropriation of over Rs 2,400 crore in the North Delhi and South Delhi municipal corporations, and had announced to stage protests outside the residences of Shah and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal from Sunday till the probe is ordered.
After the alteration of the boundaries, the BJP assessed the wards afresh to see what changes in strategy were needed
