BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has rejected Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar’s request for extending the date of his appearance before the agency. The ED had earlier summoned Shivakumar and his brother and Congress MP D K Suresh to appear before it on October 7.
“I had requested time to appear which was denied. I asked time as Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is passing through Karnataka and I have my responsibilities,” he said.
Shivkumar also accused the government of misusing agencies to harass him after seeing the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Congress leader said he would discuss the summons with fellow party leaders and take a call on whether he should appear.
The ED had filed a chargesheet against Shivakumar and others in a money laundering case in May. The case was registered based on a complaint filed by the Income Tax (IT) Department. The I-T department, during the initial probe, had allegedly found unaccounted and misreported wealth linked to the Congress leader. Shivakumar earlier had called the charges “baseless” and “politically motivated”.
Earlier, the ED has also summoned Shivakumar’s wife and mother to appear before it, which was later challenged in the Delhi High Court. According to the source, the ED has not mentioned Shivakumar’s wife and mother’s names in the charge sheet.
In August, a special CBI court in Delhi granted bail to four accused in a money laundering case connected with Shivakumar registered by ED.
The Special Judge Vikas Dhull, while granting bail to four accused, said, “The bail applications are allowed and the accused are admitted to regular bail subject to their furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs 1,00,000 each with one surety each of the like amount subject to the condition that accused shall not leave this country without prior permission of this court and shall not try to tamper with the evidence or influence any witness.”
The ED had arrested Shivakumar on September 3, 2019, in the case and later, the Delhi High Court granted him bail in October 2019. (ANI)