CONGRESS Cries Foul After Shivakumar, Its Karnataka Leader, Arrested By ED For Alleged Money Laundering: His Supporters Protest

Enforcement Directorate has arrested former Karnataka Water Resources Minister and senior Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar in a money laundering case for custodial interrogation. A senior ED official told IANS Shivakumar was arrested on Tuesday evening following his questioning for the fourth time in Delhi.  Shivakumar, called trouble shooter for the   INC, was evasive and non-cooperative during questioning by the agency. Shivakumar   reposed before the financial probe agency on Friday for the first time after the Karnataka High Court rejected his petition for interim protection from arrest by the agency.Shivakumar,57, is also considered as a master strategist credited to having defeated 3 members of  H D Devegowda  family including defeating the former prime minister twice and also defeating H D Kumaraswamy  and his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy in Sathanur and Kanakapura region. He also ensured his brother’s victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections despite Congress being wiped out in the Southern state. He is allegedly a fund raiser for the INC and was on the radar of the Income Tax Department and the ED since demonetization in 2016. At the New Delhi residence of the former Minister, reportedly close to the Congress bigwigs, was conducted

By Income- Tax Department on August 2, 2017 leading  to seizure of unaccounted cash worth Rs 8.59 crore. Thereafter, the Income Tax Department lodged cases against the Congress leader and his four other associates under Sections 277 and 278 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Sections 120(B), 193 and 199 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). On 2 August 2017, Shivakumar residence and office in Bengaluru were raided by the Income-Tax Department officers in connection with alleged tax irregularities. Eagleton Golf Resort in Bidai, a town on the outskirts of Bengaluru frequented by Shivakumar and owned by his brother D K Suresh, was also raided. Searches were carried out by 300 officials for a span of 80 hours in 67 locations across New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Chennai and Shivakumar’s hometown Kanakapura. It was revealed that ₹8 crore was seized from Shivakumar’s Delhi residence and ₹2 crore from other locations. Congress  says his arrest is part of the vendetta  campaign launched by the BJP.The ruling  party is misusing officials to harass its political opponents, INC said as  there was protest in Bengaluru against the senior INC leader’s arrest  .