New Delhi, Aug 30: After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued him fresh summons, senior Congress leader and former Karnataka Minister DK Shivakumar asked his supporters not to worry as he had not "committed rape or taken money".
"Please don't take tension, I have not taken tension, there is no need to take tension. I have not committed any mistake. I have not committed any rape or taken money, there is nothing against me," Shivakumar told reporters here on Friday.
The ED move comes after the Karnataka High Court had on Thursday dismissed Shivakumar's petition challenging the summons issued to him in a money-laundering case.
"From the past two years, the entire property of my 84-year-old mother has been attached by various investigation authorities as benami property and I am the benami there. Our entire blood has already been sucked," he said.
The ED had in September last year registered a money-laundering case against Shivakumar and few others on the basis of an alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions case. The agency had booked Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Reacting to the development, the former minister tweeted in the morning, saying, "Have received summons from ED late yesterday night at 9.40 PM asking for me to appear at 1PM in Delhi today. Although the sudden scheduling by ED is malafide, I believe in rule of law & will definitely participate & fully co-operate with them and abide by the law of our country."
He further dubbed the move as politically motivated and said that he did whatever his party had asked him to do. "IT raid on me was politically motivated for hosting Gujarat Congress MLAs. As a loyal soldier of Congress & a responsible politician, I did what party asked me to do, for which I am being targeted. I have full faith in legal systems & will face this legally as well as politically."
Shivakumar will have to appear before the investigating agency unless he gets relief from the Supreme Court. His lawyer, Sandeep Patil, said they would move the apex court.
Shivakumar, the water resources minister in the previous Congress-JDS coalition government, had filed a petition in the high court seeking directions to quash the summons issued by the ED in February. The ED had served the summons to Shivakumar and four others and asked them to be present at the office of the directorate for hearing in a case filed in September last year.
In raids conducted by the Income Tax Department in 2017, large amounts of cash was unearthed from Shivakumar's properties.
Addressing Kannadiga delegates from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and other countries through a video conference, Dr Narayan also assured that necessary steps will be taken by the Karnataka government to provide free quarantine facility for those who cannot afford private quarantine in hotels or guest houses. The video conference was organised by coastaldigest.com.
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