New Delhi/ Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday intensified its grilling of Congress MLA and former minister D.K. Shivakumar and also brought his daughter Ms Aishwarya under its scanner quizzing her for seven hours at its office in New Delhi.
Shivakumar, who was arrested by the ED on September 3 in a money laundering case, was brought face to face with his associate Sachin Narayan, a businessman from Hassan, and was questioned the entire day. By the evening, the Congress strongman was shifted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after he complained of high blood pressure and a stomach upset. The doctors administered him IV fluids and have advised him to take rest, said sources.
On Wednesday, members of the dominant Vokkaliga community to which Mr Shivakumar belongs, had staged a massive protest in Bengaluru against his arrest terming it political vendetta by the BJP and had also submitted a memorandum to Governor Vajubhai Vala.
His daughter Aishwarya, a 22-year-old management graduate, was questioned and her statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). She arrived at the agency’s office in Khan Market in Delhi around 10.30 am and left at 7.30 pm. Aishwarya is also understood to have been confronted with documents and statements made by her father with regard to a trip to Singapore they are reported to have made together in 2017, officials said.
Aishwarya is a trustee in an education trust floated by her father. The trust, holding assets and businesses worth crores, operates a number of engineering and she is the main person behind them, the officials said.
Sources said Ms Aishwarya was questioned about the reported jump in her assets by over 100 times in the last five years. Five years ago, her assets were worth only Rs 1 crore, which have now grown to Rs 108 crore. Besides, there was a reported transaction of Ms Aishwarya with businessman and CCD owner late V.G. Siddartha.
