DK Shivakumar must appear on July 1 in PMLA case: ED court

KEY STORY

It is trouble brewing for Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President DK Shivakumar after a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi on Tuesday summoned him and others to appear before it on July 1 in a 2018 money laundering case. Special Judge Vikas Dhull took cognizance of the prosecution complaint (PC) filed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) through its Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana last week against Shivakumar and others under the PMLA, 2002.

Speaking to TNIE, the KPCC President questioned the timing of the prosecution complaint and said that he will appear before the special court. “They (ED) could have filed the chargesheet against me and others six months after they had arrested me. It is an open secret why they waited for three years to do it,” said the Congress leader.

‘ED took too long to file prosecution complaint’

He added that he was granted bail in the (PMLA) case by the Supreme Court in October 2019. According to informed sources, though the PC in PMLA cases, where the suspect has been arrested should be filed within 60 days from the time of arrest, the Central agency took twoand a-half-years to file the PC against Shivakumar and others reportedly because they had to “collect evidence, much of which was shared by the Income Tax Department, which had earlier filed a chargesheet against them,” said sources on condition of anonymity.

The ED in September 2018 had registered a case against Shivakumar and his four associates — Sachin Narayan (business associate), Sunil Kumar Sharma (proprietor of Sharma Transport), Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah (employee at Karnataka Bhawan, New Delhi) and N Rajendran, who is a former state government employee) — under the PMLA based on the chargesheet filed by the Income Tax Department, Karnataka & Goa, against them in early 2018 before a Special Court for Economic Offences (SCEO) in Bengaluru.