Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K. Kavitha on Thursday skipped the summons by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with money laundering charges in the Delhi Excise Policy case.
The BRS leader had approached the Supreme Court For an urgent hearing claiming that as a woman, she cannot be summoned to the ED office, and the probe agency’s representatives must visit her instead.
On Wednesday the Supreme Court had agreed to hear her plea challenging the ED summons on March 24 but refused to grant her interim relief.
Ms. Kavitha did not appear for the third round of ED questioning conveying to the probe agency that the matter is still pending before the apex court.
According to the sources, Ms. Kavitha has sent the necessary documents sought by the probe agency through her legal representative.
The ED had asked the BRS MLC to appear before it today. Heavy security was deployed outside her Delhi residence ahead of her questioning by ED.
In a petition filed through advocate Vandana Sehgal, Ms. Kavitha has urged the top court to quash the ED summons dated March 7 and 11 stating that asking her to appear before the agency office instead of her residence is contrary to the settled tenets of criminal jurisprudence and thus, wholly unsustainable in law being violative of the Proviso to Section 160 of the CrPC.
She has also sought that all procedures carried out by ED, including those in relation to the recording of statements be audio or videographed in the presence of her lawyer at a visible distance inter-alia by way of installation of appropriate CCTV cameras.
She has also sought to set aside the impounding order dated March 11 and declare the seizure made thereunder null and void.
In the petition, she said, “Despite the petitioner, Kavitha not being named in the FIR, certain members of the incumbent ruling political party at the Center made scandalous statements linking the Petitioner to the Delhi Excise Policy and the said FIR.”
Ms. Kavitha further added that the said remand application containing the contact details of the Petitioner were leaked to the media and the public.