A Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order on the bail plea of Congress leader and former Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar, who has been accused of money laundering. During the hearing in the Rouse Avenue Court, the Enforcement Directorate objected to the bail plea of the Congress leader.
Opposing his bail plea on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj argued that Shivakumar had been accused of serious economic offence, adding that such acts were detrimental for the country’s economy as well as national security.
He told the court that Shivakumar had been evasive during questioning and was not cooperating with the investigating agency. According to Nataraj, Shivakumar refused to divulge details when asked about irrigation land in question. He added that Congress leader had been giving irrelevant answer to the questions posed by the agency.
The prosecution argued that evidence might be tampered if the former Karnataka minister is granted bail.
In Shivakumar’s defence, veteran lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi questioned the actions of the Enforcement Directorate, claiming that while the agency was referring to recovery of large amount of cash, there were no documents supportive of the claim.
Singhvi told the court that when all the documents were already in the possession of the Enforcement Directorate, there was no question of Shivakumar tampering the evidence.
The court had on Tuesday sent Shivakumar to judicial custody till October 1.
The money laundering case against Shivakumar was registered by the ED in September last year on the basis of a complaint filed by the Income Tax department.
The I-T department, during the initial probe, had allegedly found unaccounted and misreported wealth linked to Shivakumar.
The department had that stated it came across money laundering and hawala operations involving a network of persons across Delhi and Bengaluru.
