NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on March 24, a plea by Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC K. Kavitha against her questioning and also seeking protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case linked  with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy scam. The Enforcement Directorate  has summoned her for a third time on March 16.

Kavitha's plea said, there is no mention of her name in the CBI's FIR that was filed in relation to alleged violations in Delhi's excise policy.

The case was brought up for urgent listing before a bench chaired by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Wednesday. The bench rejected the request for an early hearing and set the case for March 24.

Kavitha's lawyer, senior attorney Vikram Chaudhari, said that even though she had already appeared before the ED earlier this month, the repeated summons were unlawful because the petitioner was a woman.

\The plea said  that even though the petitioner wasn't included in the FIR, some members of the current ruling political party at the Center made scandalous claims connecting the petitioner to the Delhi excise policy.

Kavitha accused the ED of operating in "very disgraceful" manner and as per a "bigger plot concocted at the request of the members of the existing ruling party at the Centre". The petitioner asserted that the ED is intimidating other witnesses and their families with arrest in order to coerce them into making false statements.

The plee said, "The petitioner thinks that the inquiry against her is nothing but a fishing expedition being performed by the ES exclusively at the behest of the incumbent ruling political party.  It further argued that ED had asked her to attend at their headquarters in New Delhi in defiance of established law and had taken her cell phone without a written order requiring its production. The plea emphasised that there is no case against the petitioner and claimed that she anticipates that she will be physically and mentally coerced by the ED.

It was further stated that the sole grounds on which she had been accused were based on a small number of people who had made incriminating remarks both about themselves and purportedly against her.

Kavitha had earlier been questioned by the CBI in the case. Kavitha is said to have had a benami investment in Indospiritis, a conglomerate that deals in alcoholic beverages.

Arun Ramchandra Pillai, a businessman with ties to Hyderabad, is accused by the ED of representing Kavitha in Indospirits.

The investigative agency has also charged the South lobby, which comprised Kavitha, bribed the AAP administration to establish an excise policy to allow the corporations to win the bids and to build a cartel and dominate the retail outlets in Delhi.

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