Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 26: In a 2018 case involving money laundering and questionable transactions abroad through shell firms, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a charge sheet against Karnataka Congress chairman D K Shivakumar and his accomplices in a Delhi court this week, according to an official.
In 2017, the Income Tax Department allegedly seized undeclared cash worth over ten crore, prompting the filing of the complaint. The ED also arrested Shivakumar’s business partner Sachin Narayan and transporter Sunil Kumar Sharma, who is accused of transporting cash on a regular basis through hawala routes.
In a June 2018 prosecution case, the department alleged Shivakumar paid the All-India Congress Committee $5 million in two instalments through his political associate V Mulgund.
Notably, Shivakumar was detained by the ED in September 2019, but the Delhi high court granted him bail the following month. It claimed to have discovered some loose sheets from his home with cash payments totaling Rs 44 crore between 2014 and 2016.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case in July 2020 saying that Shivakumar and his brother, DK Suresh, amassed disproportionate assets totaling 74.93 crore between April 1, 2013, and April 30, 2018, while the Congress lawmaker was a minister in Karnataka.
According to his electoral papers, Shivakumar and his family owned moveable and immovable assets of Rs 33.92 crore before April 2013. Between April 2013 and April 2018, Shivakumar and his family are accused of amassing properties worth Rs 128 crore, both moveable and immovable. At the end of the inspection period, the CBI said they had assets worth Rs 162 crore. During these five years, the total income and receivables were 166 crores, while the spending was 113 crores, according to the report.