You can't pick and choose accused: Supreme Court on CBI, ED probe in Delhi Excise Policy case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took strong exception to the manner in which the country's two premier central investigating agencies were probing the Delhi Excise Policy case. [Kalvakuntla Kavitha v Directorate of Enforcement]..A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan orally remarked that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) relied on selective witness and approver statements as per the prosecution's convenience."You cannot pick and choose any accused. If we take approver's statements, his (Sarath Reddy) role (in alleged scam) is also as much as Kavitha's. Prosecution has to be fair, you cannot pick and choose anyone. What is this fairness? Someone who incriminates himself, while being witness (but not prosecuted against)? Very fair and reasonable discretion!" Justice Gavai said.Justice Viswanathan weighed in on the larger point of relying on statements of co-accused to implicate persons."Purely from a legal point, what is the evidentiary value of co-accused implicating the appellant? How incriminatory can it be? You cannot start with this, you have to see for lending assurance after marshalling other evidence. We are ignoring the retraction (of co-accused Arun Pillari's statement) and going by the unretracted statement, just from a legal perspective.".Justice Gavai also took objection to the ED and the CBI presenting arguments in bail hearings as if it is the main trial itself. "Do not argue like trial. These were statements relied on in Kejriwal case where he was granted bail in ED case. If you are going to argue bail matters like this, everyday we can only take one or two matters. We cannot allow this only because parties are celebrities. Bail cannot be heard for hours and hours."The Bench also objected to arguments being made on the merits of the case and elaborate discussion of evidence at the current stage."If you want more observations, we are warning you. This Court has repeatedly said elaborate arguments on bail should be avoided"..The oral observations were made before the Bench granted bail to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Kalvakuntla Kavitha in cases initiated by the ED and the CBI concerning alleged corruption in the implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.Counsel for the two agencies pressed on the material found during the probe to argue against a reasoned order granting bail to Kavitha.Justice Gavai, before dictating the order, then hinted that things could be said about the conduct of the ED and the CBI."(You would not want) any observations on the conduct of the agencies."The Court eventually set aside orders passed by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court denying Kavitha bail..Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Vikram Chaudhri and Dama Seshadri Naidu with Advocates Nitesh Rana, P Mohith Rao, J Akshitha, Arveen Sekhon, Deepak Nagar, Somanadri Goud K, Shaik Sohil Akthar, Muskaan Khurana, Eugene S Philomene, Ashish Jacob Mathee, Varun Varma, Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Shubam Rajhans, Nikhil Kohli, Nikhil Rohatgi, Keshav Sehgal, Shashank Khurana and Kalyani Bhide Gharote appeared for K Kavitha today.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju with Advocates Zoheb Hossain, Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Annam Venkatesh, Arkaj Kumar, Vivek Gurnani, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Samrat Goswami, Hitarth Raja, Shweta Desai and Abhi Priya Rai also appeared for the ED and the CBI..Kavitha was arrested by the ED on March 15 from Hyderabad. Subsequently, the CBI took her into custody on April 11. The CBI and the ED have claimed that she was involved in the exchange of bribes and the laundering of money in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy. The trial court rejected K Kavitha's bail plea in both the CBI and ED cases on May 6..[Read operative part of the order].[Read judgment].[Follow our live-coverage of today's hearing]