The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Congress leader and former Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar in a money laundering case on a personal bail bond and two sureties of Rs 25 lakh each. The court directed him not to leave the country without permission.
Delhi High Court judge, Justice Suresh Kait granted him bail and said he is not a flight risk, according to news agency PTI. Justice Kait said Shivakumar cannot tamper with evidence as the documents are with the probe agencies and there is no evidence to show he has influenced witnesses.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested the former Karnataka minister on September 3.
Earlier in the day, Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited Shivakumar at the Tihar Jail in Delhi. She was accompanied by party General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka KC Venugopal and party colleague Ambika Soni.
Shivakumar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on September 3 and he is in the agency’s custody. In September last year, the central agency had registered a money laundering case against him, Haumanthaiah (an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi) and others.
The Karnataka Congress leader has been on the radar of the Income Tax (I-T) Department and the ED since the demonetization in 2016. In an I-T raid at his New Delhi apartment on August 2, 2017, unaccounted Rs 8.83 crore cash was seized
Shivakumar and his associates were booked under Sections 277 and 278 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and Sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 193 (punishment for false evidence) and 199 (false statements made in declaration which is by law receivable as evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Shivakumar’s affidavit submitted to the Election Commission before the Assembly elections in 2018 showed that his daughter Aishwarya owned assets of Rs 108 crore compared to only Rs 1.09 crore in 2013.
However, the Karnataka Congress leader clarified that his daughter Aishwarya was not dependent on his income and that he was still declaring her assets as per the Representation of Peoples Act.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 18 summoned Shivakumar’s wife and mother for questioning in connection with a money laundering case. Earlier, the ED has questioned Shivakumar’s daughter Aishwarya; his brother and MP DK Suresh; and Belagavi Rural MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar.