Congress leader DK Sivakumar has been arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in Delhi. His trial for the past four days has ended in custody over the Rs 8.60 crore suspected money laundering case at his home in Delhi.
The former cabinet minister and sitting MLA from Kanakapura seat appeared before the agency for the fourth time for questioning on Tuesday. He was placed under arrest under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said.
ED says that the Congress leader was arrested for custodial interrogation. Shivakumar will be produced before a court here on Wednesday by the Enforcement Directorate for seeking his custody.
Congress and JDS high command have called the move as a vendetta against the opposition.
We strongly condemn the high-handed tactics & vendetta politics being deployed against Congress leaders. The arrest of Shri @DKShivakumar is yet another attempt by the govt to distract the public from their failed policies & the sorry state of the economy.#BJPVendettaPolitics
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 3, 2019
Vindictive politics has become the order of the day. Opposition leaders are easy victims of power misuse. In public life, we need to be strong to face baseless allegations and conspiracies. I am sure Mr @DKShivakumar is strong enough to face this vindictive agenda against him.
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) September 2, 2019
D.K. Shivkumar congratulated BJP for the move. “I congratulate my BJP friends for finally being successful in their mission of arresting me. The IT and ED cases against me are politically motivated and I am a victim of BJP’s politics of vengeance and vendetta,” DK Shivakumar wrote on Twitter.
I congratulate my BJP friends for finally being successful in their mission of arresting me.
The IT and ED cases against me are politically motivated and I am a victim of BJP's politics of vengeance and vendetta.
— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) September 3, 2019
Vindictive politics has become the order of the day. Opposition leaders are easy victims of power misuse. In public life, we need to be strong to face baseless allegations and conspiracies. I am sure Mr @DKShivakumar is strong enough to face this vindictive agenda against him.
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) September 2, 2019
The ED had in September last year registered the money laundering case against Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others.
It was based on a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income-Tax Department against Shivakumar last year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores.
The I-T department has accused Shivakumar and his associate SK Sharma of transporting a huge amount of unaccounted cash on a regular basis through ‘hawala’ channels with the help of three other accused.
