Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar questioned by ED in money laundering case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday questioned Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar in connection with a second money laundering case being probed against him.

The 60-year-old Congress leader reached the federal agency's office at A P J Abdul Kalam Road in central Delhi around 12 noon and was seen entering the office after getting a pass made from the front office.  The agency issued him the latest summons last week in a second money laundering case after taking cognisance of a 2020 CBI case linked to the alleged possession of disproportionate assets.

Shivakumar, who was accompanied by a group of about four people, stepped out for lunch during lunch break and re-joined the session. The former Karnataka minister did not reply to questions posed by reporters, saying he will speak to them later.

The CBI case was filed against Shivakumar and his family members on the allegations of possession of disproportionate assets worth Rs 74.93 crore.

The Congress leader, after receiving the latest ED summons, had said he was not aware of the case for which he had been asked to appear before the agency.

"In the midst of the #BharatJodoYatra and the Assembly session, they have again issued me an ED summons to appear. I am ready to cooperate but the timing of this summon and the harassment I am put through, is coming in the way of discharging my constitutional and political duties,” Shivakumar tweeted on September 15.

On September 3, 2019, the ED had arrested Shivakumar in another money laundering case and the Delhi High Court granted him bail in October that year.

In May this year, the agency filed a charge sheet against him and some others linked to him in the case. It was registered after taking cognisance of a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax Department against them in 2018 before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores.

The I-T department has accused Shivakumar, the state Pradesh Congress Committee chief, and his alleged associates of transporting huge amounts of unaccounted cash on a regular basis through 'hawala' channels with the help of three other accused.

The former Karnataka cabinet minister played an instrumental role in ensuring the safe stay of Gujarat Congress MLAs in a Karnataka resort during the Rajya Sabha polls in 2017 amid allegations that the BJP was trying to poach them.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, the late Ahmed Patel, had fought the Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat in 2017 and Shivakumar had hosted 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at the resort to keep the flock together.

The ED had questioned his daughter Aishwarya too in the case after she was summoned to appear in Delhi.