Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has sent Congress leader and former Karnataka energy minister, DK Shivkumar to 14-day judicial custody until October 1. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3 in a money laundering case.
However, owing to his serious health condition, the special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar directed the ED to take Shivakumar to the hospital first and only after his medical condition is found to be stable could he be sent to Tihar Jail, which is also the current home of the Congress era finance minister P Chidambaram.
“It is directed that the accused be first taken to the hospital and only after his medical condition is opined to be stable, he is sent to judicial custody in Central Jail, Tihar. The accused is remanded to judicial custody till October 1,” the judge said in the order.
The court has listed Shivkumar’s bail plea hearing on Wednesday at 3.30 pm.
The judge said that in case the MLA is admitted to the hospital, his custody be taken over by the Superintendent of Tihar jail and the doctors hand over his custody only on his discharge.
“In case, he is admitted in the hospital, his custody shall be taken over by the Superintendent Central Jail, Tihar who shall provide guards for the accused. In case of his admission in the hospital, the doctors shall hand over his custody to the Superintendent, Central jail, Tihar only on his discharge,” said the judge.
The court taking into consideration the medical records of Shivakumar, who suffers from hypertension and fluctuating blood pressure and has undergone angioplasty earlier, allowed Shivkumar to take his medicines to Tihar, in case he is taken there, subject to the approval of doctor on duty in the jail.
The ED has, however, sought the court’s permission to interrogate the Congress leader during his 14-day judicial custody as the probe agency claimed in the court that his interrogation was yet to be completed.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj and Special Public Prosecutors Amit Mahajan, N K Matta and Nitesh Rana, appearing for the ED, told the court that Shivakumar’s health condition did not allow his effective questioning. Meanwhile, the Congress leader’s counsels, senior advocates A M Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi opposed the ED plea for judicial custody and sought his bail on medical grounds.
Karnataka Congress MLA DK Shivakumar who was being grilled by the Enforcement Directorate over his alleged involvement in a money laundering case had been arrested for ‘not cooperating’. He has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on September 3.
The alleged money laundering by DK Shivakumar came to light after raids by the tax officials on August 2, 2017, on Shivakumar’s four flats in New Delhi, which led to the seizure of unaccounted cash worth Rs. 8.59 crore without evidence of its source of income.
The tax agencies had filed cases against Shivakumar and four other persons associated with him 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 the basis of the charge sheet filed by the I-T officials, the ED had booked a money laundering and hawala transaction case in September last year.
Recently, the Enforcement Directorate had summoned Shivkumar’s daughter on September 10 (Thursday) in a money laundering case involving her father. The ED is investigating her trips to Singapore with her father DK Shivakumar in 2017.
The Income Tax department had found certain cross-border transactions which DK Shivakumar and his daughter couldn’t provide a satisfactory explanation to. The Enforcement Directorate believes that these transactions could be hawala transactions and therefore they have summoned Shivakumar’s daughter for questioning.
