In another setback for Congress leader and Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, the Karnataka High Court Thursday (October 19), dismissed his petition seeking quashing of the CBI’s disproportionate assets case against him.
While dismissing the Congress leader’s plea, the court Thursday opinioned opined that Shivakumar had filed the plea after an inordinate delay. The Court further observed that most of the CBI’s investigation has been concluded. The High Court also lifted the temporary halt on the CBI’s inquiry and ordered the agency to complete the investigation and submit its final report within 3 months.
Reacting to the Karnataka HC decision, the Congress leader told the media, “I will cooperate with whatever the process is… I know that I have not done anything wrong. It is a political vendetta which the BJP tried using.”
#WATCH | "I will cooperate with whatever the process is… I know that I have not done anything wrong. It is a political vendetta which the BJP tried using": #Karnataka Deputy CM #DKShivakumar on Karnataka High Court rejecting his plea to quash CBI case in disproportionate assets… pic.twitter.com/RM0dsgynXG
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) October 19, 2023
Notably, this is the second time the Karnataka Congress chief’s plea has been dismissed by the same single-judge bench led by Justice Natarajan, who had previously dismissed DK Shivakumar’s petition in April 2023.
The disproportionate assets case against Congress leader and Karnataka DY CM DK Shivakumar
In 2019, the BS Yeddyurappa government sanctioned an investigation against DK Shivakumar. At that time, the CBI registered an FIR with the permission of the state government. Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar, who had questioned the then BJP government’s move, had filed an application saying that the order for the CBI probe was wrong. Hearing the arguments of both sides, the single-judge bench led by Justice Natarajan dismissed the petition.
The case against Shivakumar was registered in October 2020 and alleged that there had been a disproportionate increase in his assets between 2013 and 2018. It had stated that during this time, Shivakumar’s assets increased by about five times, from 34 crore to 163 crore.
Further, the affidavit filed by Shivakumar while submitting his nomination papers for the 2019 Assembly polls revealed that the wealth of Congress’s Karnataka chief had increased by 68 per cent as compared to 2018. In the affidavit submitted by Shivakumar for the Assembly polls, Shivakumar pegged his total assets and those of his family members at a combined value of Rs 1414 crores.
In his affidavit for the 2013 Assembly polls, the assets held by the Congress leader’s family were valued at Rs 251 crores while, in the 2018 affidavit, the combined value of the property held by his kin was pegged at Rs 840 crores. Shivakumar also declared his annual income at Rs 14.24 crores whereas his wife’s annual income is Rs 1.9 crores.
The case had also been investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department. The ED had arrested Shivakumar in connection with a money laundering case in 2019, the Delhi High Court, however, granted him bail a month later.
