Bengaluru, Oct 6: Political News, Karnataka, (Bengaluru), October 6:-After a day-long search operation in 14 properties spread across three states allegedly owned by Karnataka’s powerful Congress leader D K Shivakumar, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) on Monday registered a case of amassing Rs 74.93 crore worth assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
A statement released by the CBI stated that it has registered a case against former Karnataka minister (presently MLA) Shivakumar on allegations of possessing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 74.93 crore (approx) in his name and in the name of his family members.
The statement further said that the CBI raided 14 properties linked to the leader in three states — Karnataka, Delhi and Maharashtra.
“Searches were conducted today at 14 locations in Karnataka, Delhi and Mumbai at the premises of Shivakumar and others which led to the recovery of Rs 57 lakh (approx) in cash and several incriminating documents, including property documents, bank related information, computer hard disk etc.,” the statement said, adding that the alleged corruption case against the Karnataka Congress chief was registered by the CBI based on the inputs shared by the Enforcement Directorate over a money laundering probe.
It can be recalled that last year, the 58-year-old Congress leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after four days of questioning over money-laundering allegations.
The September 2019 arrest followed tax raids on Shivakumar in 2017, when Rs 8.6 crore “undisclosed income” was allegedly found. The figure was revised to Rs 11 crore later. The ED had filed a money laundering case against Shivakumar in 2018, based on a chargesheet filed by the Income Tax Department.
During the money laundering probe, the ED had forwarded some of their findings to the CBI last year. This is the first CBI case against Shivakumar.
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Shivakumar’s family counsel A S Ponnana asked if they will keep raiding his house every time there is an election?
“There should be some sanctity – something like the rule of law. This is not a lawful action. I don’t think there is a doubt in anybody’s mind,” he said.
“The public is aware as to why this is happening. The by-elections are announced, he is one of the star campaigners, and he is KPCC president. It is only a politically motivated action and not a legally warranted one,” he added.
Unfazed by the day-long raids on him and his relatives by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Congress’ Karnataka unit President, D K Shivakumar on Monday said that the agency could recover only Rs 1.37 lakh from his house and around Rs 3 lakh from his office and not Rs 57 lakh as it claimed.
Addressing reporters at his residence here, he dared the CBI to release ‘panchanama’ (record of evidence/findings at the location of crime) to prove their claim in their statement released to the media.
“I am responsible and accountable for what is recovered from my residence and office where I stay and operate, not for what has been recovered from elsewhere,” he said.
Terming that raids on him “politically motivated”, Shivakumar asserted that every time that central agencies conducted raids on him, unfortunately he was busy with one or the other elections.
“Thus, it prompts anyone to think and presume that this was a politically-motivated case and raids… though I do not find fault with the Central agencies, as they were doing their duty,” he said sarcastically.
Launching a veiled attack on the media, Shivakumar claimed that it always goes overboard while covering such events related to him and his family members.
“Since morning, I am observing some channels reported that Rs 3 crore cash was recovered and I would be arrested. At the end of the day, truth prevailed… I am neither arrested nor a huge sum of cash recovered as was being sensationally revealed by the channels,” he said.
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