Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader and Irrigation Minister in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government D.K. Shivakumar has been booked under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions.
The ED on Tuesday registered a case against Shivakumar and his four associates - Sachin Narayan (business associate), Sunil Kumar Sharma (proprietor of Sharma Transport), Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah (employee at Karnataka Bhawan, New Delhi) and N. Rajendran (former state government employee), under the PMLA based on the chargesheet filed by the Income Tax Department against them earlier this year before a Special Court for Economic Offences (SCEO) in the City.
The ED is likely to issue summons to Shivakumar and his associates under the PMLA. “As a matter of procedure the chargesheet (filed by the I-T) was examined to verify if it contained any material for the ED to take cognizance of under the PMLA. The charge sheet may also be examined by other agencies for violations including corruption since Mr. Shivakumar is an elected representative,” said official sources on condition of anonymity. Mr. Shivakumar has been under the scanner of income tax authorities since August 2017.
The Directorate of Income Tax (Investigation), Karnataka & Goa had raided the Eagleton Golf Resort in Bidadi in suburban Bengaluru then, where he had hosted 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha elections. Tax raids lasting a week, which were conducted at nearly 60 premises of Mr. Shivakumar, his relatives and associates across Karnataka and in Delhi had reportedly led to the recovery of over Rs 10 crore in cash from the four properties in Delhi and in Karnataka, which are said to be linked to them.
Following the raids, the I-T Department had filed a case against Mr. Shivakumar (accused number one) and others under section 276C (1) (tax evasion) and 277 (false statement) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and under section 193 (false evidence) and 199 (false statement in evidence) read with section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Mr. Shivakumar has been charged with tax evasion, indulging in hawala transactions running into crores of rupees with help of his four associates and for destroying evidence. He had torn a piece of paper during the Eagleton resort raid, which reportedly had information on his financial transactions. The SCEO had summoned the minister granted him bail in the three cases in March.
In June this year the Central Bureau of Investigation zhad searched the premises of the aides of Mr. Shivakumar and his brother, who is also the Bengaluru rural MP - D.K. Suresh - in connection with an April 2017 FIR in a bank fraud case of Rs 10 lakh at Corporation Bank, Ramanagara in the post-demonetization period. The Congress party has protested against the tax raids against Mr. Shivakumar and has called them an act of “political vendetta.”
