The Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed the petition filed by former Water Resource Minister DK Shivakumar who had sought the quashing of the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case.
Karnataka High Court Justice Arvind Kumar dismissed the petition and ordered DK Shivakumar to appear before the ED for questioning.
DK Shivakumar and two government employees – Anjaneya Hanumant and Rajendran, both government employees posted at the Karnataka Bhavan in Delhi – had moved the court seeking a direction to quash the summons issued by the ED. The Enforcement Directorate had issued a summons to the leader to question him in a money laundering case of around Rs 7 crore.
Speaking to the media after the petition was dismissed, Shivakumar said, “I respect the court’s decision. I will look for other legal options. My contention here is that this is an Income Tax Case and not one under the purview of the Enforcement Directorate. I do not want to comment about the partiality of central agencies here.”
The case against DK Shivakumar and two others was filed by the ED in September 2018. The case is related to unaccounted cash unearthed by the Income Tax Department during raids in properties owned by Shivakumar and his associates in August 2017.
More than Rs 7 crore in unaccounted cash was allegedly recovered by Income Tax sleuths from properties owned by the senior Congress leader in New Delhi, including from his Safdarjung Enclave residence.
DK Shivakumar was then booked under Section 120(b) of the Income Tax Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. His business associates Sachin Narayan, Sunil Kumar Sharma (owners of Sharma Travels) were also booked and Anjaneya Hanumant and Rajendran were named as the co-accused.
Rajendran is a caretaker of Karnataka Bhavan and also works for Sharma, the proprietor of Sharma Travels, which runs a luxury bus service. The ED has alleged that Shivakumar and Sharma had set up a massive hawala network to launder money from New Delhi to various parts of the country. The ED suspects that Hanumanthaiah, the employee of Karnataka Bhavan, was responsible for storing the unaccounted money.
Shivakumar is the legislator from the Kanakapura in Ramanagara district. As per the declaration in the nomination to the Election Commission for the 2018 Assembly Elections, Shivakumar was among the richest politicians in the state, with assets valued at Rs 730 crore (including his spouse).
Before this, he has been accused of illegal granite mining. He and his family were issued notices by the Karnataka High Court in 2015.
Shivakumar has held the Urban Development, Energy Water Resources, Power and other significant portfolios during previous Congress governments.