ED confronts Shivakumar with crucial evidences
Shivakumar's family too has decided to go to New Delhi on Friday.
New Delhi/Bengaluru: The noose seems to be tightening around senior Karnataka Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar as sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday reportedly confronted him with the material evidence, including certain recovered documents, during questioning.
Sources in the central probe agency said, “D.K. Shivakumar gave conflicting statements” when presented with the material. Agency officials have now decided to confront him with other scientific evidence on Friday.
A fierce legal battle is however on the cards after the arrest of the senior Congress leader, with his lawyers planning to appeal in the Delhi high court against the Special Court’s decision to remand him to nine days in the custody of the ED.
Mr Shivakumar’s brother and Bengaluru Rural Congress MP D.K. Suresh Kumar, held day-long meetings with his lawyers and they are likely to approach the Delhi high court Friday morning.
Mr Shivakumar, arrested by ED earlier this week while he was in Delhi and is now lodged at the Tughlaq Road police station, is being interrogated by its officers, on the grounds that he was being evasive and not cooperating with its investigation.
The former minister is also receiving a great deal of support from within the Congress with party president Sonia Gandhi inquiring about his health and promising him all help.
Mr Shivakumar’s family too has decided to go to New Delhi on Friday.
Meanwhile, the bandh in Ramanagar and Kana-kapura where the former minister enjoys huge support, passed off peacefully. The protesters, most of them Shivakumar supporters, submitted a memorandum to the Ramanagar deputy commissioner, claiming his arrest was politically motivated.
A Delhi court Wedn-esday remanded Mr Shi-vakumar, arrested in a money laundering case, to the custody of the ED till September 13.
Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar had passed the order after the ED sought 14-day custodial interrogation of Shivakumar, arrested on Tuesday, claiming that he was evasive and non-cooperative in the probe and there was “phenomenal growth” in his income while he was holding important position.
The ED had in September last year registered the money laundering case against Shivakumar, Hanuman-thaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others.