Probe Agency Targeting Me As Karnataka Elections Near: Congress's DK Shivakumar

Probe agency ED has opposed the petition claiming the two ECIRs lodged by the anti-money laundering agency pertain to different cases with certain overlapping of facts which cannot be termed as re-investigation.

Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar today 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 Mr 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.