NEW DELHI/ BENGALURU : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Water Resources and Medical Education Minister DK Shivakumar for alleged tax evasion and hawala transaction. The case under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act was filed based on the chargesheet filed by the Income Tax Department against the minister and four others, following a three-day raid carried out on his properties in August last year.
Following the Enforcement Case Information Report filed by the agency, Shivakumar and his associates are expected to be summoned to Delhi for questioning. The Income Tax Department in the Special Court for Economic Offences, Bengaluru, had established an alleged hawala transfer link - which was allegedly used by Shivakumar and his associates to funnel unaccounted cash. The ED case was in connection with the recovery of Rs 12.33 crore from his Delhi apartment during the marathon three-day raid last August.
In Special Offences Court, Shivakumar had not furnished any details on the source of the cash found yet, following which ED has pursued the case.“As per facts and analysis of evidence, it is clear that accused number 1 (Shivakumar) has set up an extensive network of persons and premises across Delhi and Bengaluru in order to transport and utilise unaccounted cash,” ED has said.
Other accused are Sachin Narayan, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Anjaneya and N Rajendra, it said.
According to I-T department, Narayan is a business partner of Shivakumar and Sharma is the proprietor of Sharma Transports, which runs a fleet of luxury and passenger buses. Hanumanthaiah is an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, allegedly responsible for storing and handling unaccounted cash of Shivakumar in Delhi, it had said in the complaint. Rajendra is a caretaker of Karnataka Bhavan and works for Sharma, according to the complaint.
The I-T Department had carried out raids on Shivakumar in August last year even as he was sheltering Gujarat Congress MLAs ahead of Rajya Sabha elections in that State. Subsequently, his offices and residences were raided by the CBI.During the course of the raids, Shivakumar had maintained that he was being targeted by the Central government using agencies such as I-T Department and CBI. Following the formation of the new coalition government, even Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had defended the minister, claiming that the BJP-led Central government was using every trick in the book to destabilise and topple the State government.
On September 15, the Special Court of Economic Offences had granted bail to Shivakumar and three others in connection with the case filed by the I-T Department. Meanwhile, the high court has stayed the case against Sachin, while the petition of others seeking a stay is still pending. Shivakumar is a prominent Vokkaliga leader in the coalition government and is considered a troubleshooter of the State Congress with close links to the Congress high command.