Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar sent to ED custody till September 17 in PMLA case

Opposing the ED plea, Shivakumar`s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted that his client was suffering from serious medical ailments, including high blood pressure.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday remanded former Karnataka minister and senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till September 17 in a money laundering case. The judge asked the ED to take him to a doctor, take care of his medical condition and then question him.

The ED had sought five-day custody. Opposing the plea, Shivakumar`s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted that his client was suffering from serious medical ailments, including high blood pressure.

During the hearing, the Enforcement Directorate officials moved an application seeking further custody of DK Shivakumar in the PMLA case probe. The central probe agency claimed that Shivakumar was ''evasive'' and gave irrelevant answers during his interrogation.

The Karnataka Congress leader has not been able to explain the sources of his deposits and many of his properties are 'benami', the agency claimed. 

The agency told the court that the accused in the custody was interrogated and his statement was recorded to unearth the modus operandi. He wasted the time of agency by giving irrelevant details and took several breaks between the questioning, it added.

ED then sought a 5-day further remand of Shivakumar, maintaining that he needs to be confronted with other accused. 

Shivkumar's 22-year-old daughter Aishwarya was also summoned by the ED on Thursday during his custody and investigated.

The Karnataka Congress leader was arrested by the law enforcement agency late evening on September 3 after which he was sent to the ED custody for 10 days by a Delhi court.

A money laundering case was registered by the agency against him in September last year, based on a complaint filed by the Income Tax Department.

The I-T Department, during the initial probe, had found unaccounted and misreported wealth linked to Shivakumar.

The I-T Department also came across money laundering and hawala operations, involving a network of persons across Delhi and Bengaluru. 

They had allegedly set up a base in order to transport and utilize the unaccounted cash.