Bengaluru: Former Karnataka Minister and chief trouble shooter for the Congress party was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for over eight hours today in a money laundering case. This is the second day that he has been questioned. The Congress leader is asked to appear before the ED on Monday for further questioning.
Shivakumar was questioned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The ED said that Shivakumar was questioned about his properties and bag full of cash found at Chandani Chowk area. He was quizzed about his relation the travel company owner and his investments.
Yesterday, the Karnataka High Court had rejected Shivakumar’s plea for protection from arrest by ED. He was questioned for his involvement in the hawala transactions in violation of PMLA, 2002.
He was questioned about an amount of Rs. 8.59 crore seized by income tax in August, 2017. The Congress leader was under scanner since demonetization in 2016. The money, which had no known source, was seized from his flat in New Delhi.
Shivakumar said that he would fight the case legally, politically, and socially.
The senior Congress leader is one of the main trouble shooter for the grand old party. He held the coalition of Congress and JD(S) in Karnataka with his acumen and clout. When the MLAs of the coalition rebelled the Congress party always relied upon him to patch up the situation.
After mass resignations occurred in the coalition just prior to the fall of the government, Shivakumar went to Maharashtra to woo back the MLAs to save the Congress-JD(S) government. However, he failed and the Kumaraswamy government fell making way for the BJP to take power in the Southern state of Karnataka.
