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Enforcement Directorate registers money laundering case against Karnataka minister Shivakumar, others
The agency has booked Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Karnataka irrigation and medical education minister DK Shivakumar, agency officials said on Tuesday.
The case has been filed based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax department against him early this year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores of rupees.
In its Enforcement case information report, the ED has named Shivakumar and some of his alleged associates, including Sachin Narayan, Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah and N Rajendra, as accused in the case. Shivakumar could not be reached for comment.
The IT department had accused Shivakumar and one of his associates of transporting huge amounts of unaccounted cash on a regular basis through ‘hawala’ channels with the help of three other accused. Unaccounted cash of approximately ₹20 crore was found and seized during raids in New Delhi and Bengaluru in August 2017 which were directly relatable to Shivakumar, it had said.
The IT department had also alleged that one of Shivakumar’s associates used to run a fleet of luxury and passenger buses, which were allegedly used to transport unaccounted cash.
“The analysis of evidences shows that the minister has set up an extensive network of persons and premises across Delhi and Bangalore in order to transport and utilise unaccounted cash,” the IT department had claimed.
Shivakumar’s younger brother DK Suresh, who is a Congress MP, had alleged at a press conference on September 9 that the Centre was using the ED, Central Bureau of Investigation and the IT department to destabilize the Congress-JD (S) coalition government in the state. Suresh also claimed his brother was being ‘unnecessarily’ targeted since he was ‘responsible for bringing the coalition to power’.
Shivakumar was credited with keeping newly elected MLAs of the Congress and the JD (S) in Karnataka together ahead of the swearing-in of the HD Kumaraswamy government.
