New Delhi/Bengaluru: In a move that has sent shockwaves across the Congress which was already screaming “vendetta politics” after the arrest of its high-profile senior leader P. Chidambaram, another senior Congress leader and Karnataka rising star, D.K. Shivakumar was arrested on Tuesday by the Enforcement Directorate.
It had summoned the Vokkaliga strongman to Delhi last week for questioning. Within hours of his arrest, his home base of Ramanagara has declared a bandh, while the Congress as well as the JD(S) has expressed their outrage. The ED is expected to seek custody of him for eight days on the grounds that he has not been cooperating with the investigation.
The agency, which is inquiring into the Rs 8.59 crore recovered from Mr Shivakumar’s New Delhi flat, his alleged role in some hawala transactions and alleged disproportionate assets, gave no clue of an imminent arrest during the last four days.
Sources said: “The ED sleuths decided to arrest D.K. Shivakumar when he failed to satisfactorily reply to the questions put before him. He was giving conflicting versions during questioning.” Mr Shivakumar appeared before the agency for the fourth time on Tuesday. He was arrested under the provisions of the Preven-tion of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added. Mr Shivakumar will be produced before a local court here on Wednesday for seeking his custody.
Mr Shivakumar had for the first time appeared before the agency after the Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed his petition challenging the summons issued to him.
The ED had in September last year registered a money laundering case against Mr Shivakumar and others. The ED case was filed on the basis of a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income-Tax Department against him last year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores of rupees.
Mr Shivakumar has repeatedly indicated that his 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, was the reason for the Income Tax searches and subsequent ED action of the central agencies against him.
On Tuesday afternoon, officials did not give the former minister a lunch break despite the food brought from his brother, D.K. Suresh’s house, being delivered inside its office. By evening, the Delhi police began standing guard around the ED office and at around 8 pm, Mr Suresh was summoned inside and informed that Mr Shivakumar had been taken into custody.
