NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended the no coercive action until March 13 to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in a money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Bela M Trivedi and also comprising Justice Pankaj Mithal, today extended further its earlier order till March 13, when it would take up the matter again for hearing.The Top Court, in its earlier order on February 5, granted relief to Kavitha, the daughter of BRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao, and extended the protection to her till the third week of February.On February 21, the ED had issued a summon to Kavitha, seeking her presence on February 26. However, she failed to appear before the central probe agency.She approached the apex court with an application seeking directions to restrain the ED from calling her by way of a notice or summons under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the pendency of her petition.Kavitha, in her plea before the apex court, sought protection on the ground that there are relaxations for women in various criminal laws, including the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) case. So thereby, she should be given relaxation for this.Section 50 of the PMLA deals with the powers of authorities regarding summons, production of documents, submitting evidence, etc.According to the ED, Kavitha was a part of the liquor cartel ‘The South Group’, which allegedly paid a kickback of Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in lieu of favours under the excise policy case.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, had told the court that Kavitha has been avoiding summons and not appearing before the agency. Thereby, ED had to forcefully issue its latest summons to Kavitha on February 21, asking her to appear before it in the excise scam case, he said.
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