Supreme Court dismisses money laundering case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar
In an enormous reduction to Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar forward of Lok Sabha polls, the Supreme Court in the present day dismissed a 2018 money laundering case against the Congress chief. The case pertained to allegations of tax evasion and hawala transactions value crores.
The Congress chief was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers in September 2019 in reference to this case. The Delhi High Court had granted him bail the subsequent month. Mr Shivakumar had then accused the BJP of political vendetta and stated he had full religion within the judiciary.
The ED’s investigation against the Congress chief had adopted Income Tax division’s raids on premises linked to him and his aides in 2017. Officials had then stated money value almost Rs 300 crore was recovered in these raids. Mr Shivakumar had hit again, saying that the money was linked to the BJP.
“Question of whether 120B IPC can constitute a predicate standalone offence to enable ED to invoke PMLA has already been decided by the Supreme Court,” the court docket stated in the present day.
In November final yr, the Supreme Court dominated that prison conspiracy – below 120 B of IPC – can be handled as a scheduled offence below the Prevention of Money Laundering Act provided that the alleged conspiracy is to commit an offence included within the Schedule to the Act. The ED has sought a assessment of this ruling.
The court docket in the present day stated that the company is free to see a recall of in the present day’s order if the assessment request is accepted.
Mr Shivakumar had in 2019 approached Karnataka High Court and sought dismissal of summons issued by ED. On discovering no reduction there, he approached the Supreme Court.
Another corruption case against Mr Shivakumar is on the centre of a large political row in Karnataka at this level. The Siddaramaiah-led authorities not too long ago withdrew the sanction to CBI to probe the case. The central company, which bought a go-ahead within the case earlier than the Congress got here to energy in Karnataka, has now challenged the brand new authorities’s transfer in court docket.
Mr Shivakumar has repeatedly accused the BJP of harassing him by misusing central businesses. Responding to in the present day’s order, Mr Shivakumar informed NDTV that it’s a “big relief”. “I have been troubled. Today is a great day of my life,” he stated.
