Bengaluru: While Karnataka Congress MLA DK Shivakumar continues to be in custody of Enforcement Directorate (ED), leaders back home in Karnataka spar over the reason behind his arrest.

Newly appointed BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, in no uncertain terms, pointed fingers at former chief minister Siddaramaiah for his arrest, saying Siddaramaiah saw a possible threat in the growth of Shivakumar.

 

The state president also wondered as to why Siddaramaiah could not stop raids against Shivakumar that took place when he was the CM of the state, in the year 2017. Therefore, he added that Siddaramaiah himself was involved in vendetta politics.

Reacting to these bribes from the state BJP president, Siddaramaiah termed it “idiotic” and reiterated that the arrest was a part of vendetta politics.

Shivakumar was arrested by the ED last week in relation to the unaccounted sum of Rs 8.5 crore found at his residences in New Delhi in 2017.

As the raids were conducted, Shivakumar even approached the Karnataka high court, seeking quashing of the summons issued by the ED. But the Karnataka high court did not quash, saying the ED has the full right to summon the accused and hold an investigation in this regard.

The ED officials have also booked employees of the Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, namely Hanumanthaiah, N Rajendra and others for facilitating the transfer of money from Bengaluru to New Delhi.

The others included SK Sharma, owner of Sharma transports and Narayan, a business partner of DK Shivakumar.

DK Shivakumar and his coterie have also been accused of transferring money through hawala channels. 

The I-T department filed a chargesheet in 2018 before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores of rupees.

Presently, the ED is also contemplating filing a fresh case against DKS for exchanging old notes to the tune of Rs 10 lakh during demonetisation.