NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD:

A Delhi court remanded Bharat Rashtra Samithi politician K Kavitha on Tuesday to judicial custody till April 9 in a money laundering case linked to alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
The court of special judge Kaveri Baweja passed the order after Kavitha was produced on expiry of her ED remand. Kavitha’s lawyer, Nitesh Rana, sought interim bail, citing his client’s son’s upcoming exams.The court has scheduled the hearing of her bail plea for April 1.
Outside court, Kavitha told mediapersons: “I will come out clean. They have put me temporarily behind bars. This is not a money laundering case. This is a political laundering case.”
Case fabricated, we are fighting it out, says Kavitha as she targets BJP on bonds
One accused has already joined BJP and another accused is getting a BJP ticket, and a third accused has donated Rs 50 crore to BJP through electoral bonds. It is a fabricated and false case,” she claimed. Shouting “Jai Telangana, Jai KCR”, she said: “We are fighting it out.”
The court said Kavitha was being sent to judicial custody as “the investigation of the case is pending qua role of the arrestee and to unearth further proceeds of crime and identify others who are involved or connected with the process or activities related to proceeds of crime…” and also because the offence, being economic in nature, was “thereby more complex than ordinary crimes”.
ED did not seek further custody, stating that they no longer required custodial interrogation.
The judge directed that Kavitha be produced at 11am on April 9.
On March 15, Kavitha was remanded in ED custody till March 23; this custody was extended by three days on March 23.
The court granted judicial remand after special counsel for ED Zoheb Hossain claimed the investigation so far revealed that Kavitha was a key conspirator and beneficiary of the scam. The ED, seeking 15 days’ remand, submitted before the court that Kavitha is “highly influential” and there was every likelihood she would influence witnesses and tamper with evidence if released.
Another ground, the ED said, was that it was still investigating her alleged role.
Opposing extension of remand, senior advocate Vikram Chaudhari, appearing for Kavitha, submitted that Kavitha’s interim bail application was pending. The senior counsel also said the Supreme Court had directed expeditious disposal of the bail application but that he had not yet received a copy of the same.
The court directed the Tihar jail superintendent to permit her to have home-cooked food, a mattress, slippers, clothes, bedsheet, books and blanket, pen and paper, and to allow her to wear jewellery and have access to medicines in accordance with rules.

The court, however, denied Kavitha’s request to access documents pertaining to her arrest order, stating that there appears to be no provision under the PMLA for supply of a copy of the said material to the accused.

ED informed court that they had confronted her with statements from other co-accused individuals while she was in its custody. During questioning, Kavitha said she was unaware of the business dealings of her nephew, Meka Sri Sharan, ED said.