Bengaluru, Dec 15: Karnataka Congress leader D K Shivakumar on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that a money laundering probe initiated against him following a case of disproportionate assets cannot be sustained, and accused the Enforcement Directorate of taking action after waiting for two years because of the upcoming state assembly elections in May.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Shivakumar, argued there was neither any attachment of property in the case nor any proceeds of crime in terms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. “Why have they waited for two years to proceed in the matter? They knew of these facts in 2020…. Because the elections are in May. I can understand if there was some activity I was indulging in and it needed to be heard today and therefore this matter has to be decided,” Sibal argued before a bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Poonam A Bamba.
When additional solicitor general SV Raju dubbed the submission as “unfounded”, Sibal retorted saying it was “derivative logic”. “I am only stating a fact. Rest is derivative logic,” he said.
The court was hearing Shivakumar’s petition seeking quashing of the entire investigation including summons issued to him in the (Enforcement Case Information Record) ECIR registered by the ED in 2020. He has contested the ED’s action on several grounds including that the agency was re-investigating the same offence which it had already probed in a previous case it had lodged in 2018.
The court said it was “hearing the matter finally” instead of first dealing with the issue of interim relief. Shivakumar has sought protection from coercive action as an interim relief.
@kapilsibal @dkshivakumar @edcase #money laundering case #state elections
