ED grills K'taka Congress MLA in case involving Shivakumar

In more troubles for former Karnataka Minister and senior Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar, who is currently in judicial custody, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned his party MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar for over eight hours in the money laundering probe.

Accoding to ED officials, Hebbalkar arrived at the ED office around 11 a.m. and was questioned till evening for over eight hours in the case.

A senior ED official related to the probe told IANS, "She was confronted with the statements of Shivakumar."

The official said her statement was recorded under the Prevention of the Money Laundering Act. THe official, however, refused to share further details.

Hebbalkar, an MLA from Belagavi rural, has earlier skipped one of the ED summons for questioning on September 14. After she failed to depose before the agency on September 14, she was again summoned for questioning on Thursday.

The financial probe agency had earlier questioned Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya in connection with the case. Shivakumar was arrested by the ED on September 3 in connection with its probe into the charges of money laundering after questioning him for 4 days.

He was arrested after the Karnataka High Court rejected his plea for interim protection from arrest by the financial probe agency in late August.

Shivakumar was on the radar of the Income Tax Department and the ED since demonetisation in 2016. An I-T search at his New Delhi flat on August 2, 2017 led to the seizure of Rs 8.59 crore unaccounted cash. The I-T Department lodged cases against him and his four associates under sections 277 and 278 of the I-T Act, 1961 and sections 120(B), 193 and 199 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Based on the I-T Department chargesheet, the ED registered a money laundering case against Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others.IANS