Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been conducting simultaneous raids at the house of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chairman D.K. Shivakumar and other premises linked to him on Monday morning. Raids are also on at the residence of Congress Bengaluru Rural MP and Mr. Shivakumar’s brother D.K. Suresh. The central agency is probing charges of corruption against the former energy minister, sources said.
The raids come even as Mr. Shivakumar is leading the campaign for bypolls for two assembly seats RR Nagar and Sira scheduled for November 3. Leader of opposition Siddaramaiah tweeted: BJP has always tried to indulge in vindictive politics And mislead public attention. The latest CBI raid on KPCC president D. K. Shivakumar’s house in another attempt to derail Our preparation for the bypolls.
However, CBI sources claimed this was only a natural course of events as Karnataka High Court had only recently upheld state government’s consent to probe Mr. Shivakumar under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, that one of the accused in the case had challenged.
Search and seizure operations by Income Tax Department in August 2017 had recovered 8.59 crore unaccounted cash from a flat in Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a case for alleged money laundering and arrested Mr. Shivakumar on September 3, 2019. He was released on bail on October 24, 2019 after spending over fifty days in Tihar Jail.
The ED had written to CBI and the State government recommending for a CBI probe under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 to probe if the unaccounted cash seized was proceeds of corruption.
The ED and I-T Department had also flagged other suspected transactions and benami properties that may have been a result of corruption. Based on the recommendation from ED and a request from CBI, the State government had given consent for CBI probe on September 25, 2019.
Shashi Kumar Shivanna, an employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, a close relative of Mr. Shivakumar, facing charges of engaging in property transactions on behalf of Mr. Shivakumar who has been facing charges of benami properties, had challenged the state government giving sanction for CBI probe. Karnataka High Court dismissed the petition on July 25, 2020.
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