BENGALURU: In a major setback to former minister and Congress leader DK Shivakumar and four others, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday upheld the single judge’s order rejecting the petitions filed against summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). This is in relation to a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The accused were booked by the ED after cash was seized from a flat owned by Shivakumar during a search by the I-T Department in August 2017.
The division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Mohammad Nawaz dismissed the appeals filed by Shivakumar and four other accused -- Sachin Narayan, Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah, Sunil Sharma and Rajendra.“We are not inclined to interfere with the order of a single judge who exercised power under Section 482 CrPC, while giving more than one reason for the same. Most importantly, the single judge observed that powers under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution were also exercised while rejecting the writ petitions on August 29,” the division bench said, while dismissing the appeals.
However, the division bench noted that Section 364 of CrPC would not come in the way of the single judge for considering the prayer for interim relief sought by the accused. The accused had prayed that the single judge extend interim relief that they should not be arrested by the ED.
The division bench said that the four accused should not be arrested by the ED on the condition that they appear before the investigating agency and cooperate with the investigation, as and when they are summoned. This was after the counsels of the accused sought protection so that they can file appeal against the dismissal of their appeals.
The accused had filed writ appeals against the order of the single bench, which rejected their petitions questioning the summons issued by the ED, on August 29, 2019. On the very next day, even the single judge had rejected their memos seeking to stay or defer the judgment of the previous day.