New Delhi, Aug.27 (NSS): The Supreme Court has granted bail to BRS party MLC Kavitha in the Delhi liquor scam case. She was granted bail in both the ED and the CBI cases. She has been asked to furnish a surety of Rs 10 lakh for securing the bail. The SC asked Kavitha to not influence any witnesses in the case.
During the hearing of the bail plea, the Supreme Court made important observations. It said the investigation in the liquor case had been completed and added that the chargesheet had also been filed while noting that it is not right to keep Kavitha in judicial custody at this stage. The bench said a woman was entitled to bail under Section 45 IPC. It had earlier set aside the Delhi High Court’s verdict.
“The High Court judge acted as if Section 45 was applicable only to vulnerable women. The courts should be sensitive to Section 45,” the SC said. It also said it was not right to deny bail to a woman just because she was an educated woman. The SC said Kavitha’s passport should be surrendered to the trial court and added that she should take permission from the court to go abroad. The SC also asked Kavitha to cooperate in the trial of the case besides cooperating with the investigating agencies during the adjournment of the trial.
Kavitha was arrested by the ED on March 15 this year in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. She has been lodged in Tihar jail since then. She was arrested by the CBI on April 15 this year in the same case. Kavitha has been lodged in jail as a remand prisoner for nearly five months now. She lost 11 kilos of weight. After spending 153 days in jail, she fell ill several times.
Kavitha, who went to jail in March, fell ill for the first time on July 16. She was then shifted to Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital for treatment. Two days later, on July 18, she was produced before the court via video conferencing and the issues faced by her were brought to the notice of Judge Kaveri Baweja. On Kavitha’s request, permission was granted for her medical examination at AIIMS, Delhi. Her health condition has not completely improved since then. The jail doctors were treating her at the jail. Again on August 22, Kavitha fell ill. She was taken to AIIMS, Delhi. A medical examination was conducted in the presence of her husband Anil. She was shifted back to jail around 2 pm on the same day.
