Excise scam: BRS leader Kavitha seeks bail in corruption case
New Delhi (PTI): BRS leader K Kavitha on Monday moved a Delhi court seeking bail in a corruption case lodged by the CBI in connection with the alleged excise scam.
The application is likely to be taken up for hearing later in the day by special judge for the CBI and ED, Kaveri Baweja, who earlier in the day sent Kavitha to judicial custody till April 23.
The daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao was arrested from the Tihar Jail, where she has been lodged after her arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The CBI produced the accused before court on expiry of her three-day police custody granted earlier by the judge and sought her judicial custody.
The probe agency told the court that she was not required for further custodial interrogation.
The CBI told the court that Kavitha has not given satisfactory replies to the questions raised to her regarding the case.
"She also did not divulge true facts and gave evasive replies to most of the questions asked to her. Her replies were contrary to oral and documentary evidences gathered by the CBI during the investigation. She was not disclosing the facts truthfully, despite being confronted with the evidence and also concealing the facts, which are exclusively in her knowledge," the CBI told the court.
"Her further custodial interrogation is not required at this stage. As already submitted...she is deliberately and intentionally evading the just and relevant questions related to the case. She, being a prominent politician, is a very influential person, as such, there are credible reasons to believe that she may influence the witnesses and the potential witnesses, who are yet to be examined, tamper with the evidence to be further collected and may hamper the ongoing investigation," the CBI told the court.
It added that further investigation is going on and the same is at a very crucial stage, adding some crucial witnesses are yet to be examined and documents and digital evidence are yet to be collected.
"It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that this court may kindly be pleased to remand Kavitha for 14 days in judicial custody in the interest of the investigation and justice," the CBI told the court.
The CBI submission was opposed by advocate Nitesh Rana, appearing for Kavitha, saying the probe agency's allegations were not the grounds to send her to judicial custody.
CBI officials had recently questioned Kavitha inside prison after obtaining permission from a special court.
The ED had arrested Kavitha (46) from her Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15.
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Karnataka issues order on internal quota within SC reservation; 56,432 recruitments to proceed
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Tuesday issued an order implementing internal reservation within the 15 per cent quota earmarked for Scheduled Castes in appointments and admissions.
As per the order, 5.25 per cent reservation has been allocated to Left-hand communities under Category-A, 5.25 per cent to Right-hand communities under Category-B, and 4.50 per cent to other touchable Scheduled Caste communities under Category-C.
The government said the decision follows the recent Cabinet meeting held in view of the interim order of the High Court. It was decided to temporarily adopt the 50 per cent overall reservation ceiling and continue recruitments subject to the final verdict of the court.
Accordingly, the 15 per cent SC reservation in recruitment and admissions will now be distributed among the three categories in the prescribed ratio.
The order further stated that 20 per cent of posts or seats available under Category-C must be reserved for 59 most backward castes within the Scheduled Castes. If eligible candidates from these 59 castes are not available, the vacancies or seats should be filled by candidates from other communities within Category-C.
For implementing the revised quota in recruitment, authorities have been directed to follow a 400-point roster system. Where fewer than three Scheduled Caste roster points are available in any cadre, the reserved posts should be treated as general SC category posts for appointment purposes.
The government has also directed departments to revise ongoing recruitment processes by incorporating internal reservation. Notifications already issued without such quota distribution are to be withdrawn and fresh revised notifications issued immediately.
The order added that if the court upholds the enhanced 24 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the additional 6 per cent posts should be treated as backlog vacancies and filled accordingly.
The government has instructed all recruiting authorities to take urgent steps to fill 56,432 posts already cleared by the Finance Department through direct recruitment.
