New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought Friday a five-day extension of Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar’s custodial interrogation. DK Shivakumar, arrested September 3 by the ED in a money laundering case, was produced before a Delhi court on the expiry of his nine-day custodial interrogation. The court had September 4 sent him in ED custody till Friday.
The Congress leader was produced before special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar.
The probe agency told the court that Shivakumar has been evasive and gave irrelevant answers during the interrogation, and many of his properties are ‘benami’.
“As per probe against Shivakumar, tainted money is more than Rs 200 crore and there is Rs 800 crore worth ‘benami’ property, Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj said. He said the ED needs to confront him with voluminous documents it has collected in the case.
“I am sure he won’t answer questions in the next five days either. Why do you need his custody,” the judge asked ED. The agency replied that there are statements by some other accused and Shivakumar needs to be confronted with that.
Meanwhile, Shivakumar’s daughter Aishwarya had appeared Thursday before the ED in connection with its money laundering probe against him. The 22-year-old management graduate was questioned and her statement was recorded under PMLA.
According to the sources, Aishwarya was also confronted with documents and statements made by Shivakumar with regard to a trip to Singapore he made with her in 2017. Aishwarya incidentally is a trustee in an education trust floated by her father.
PTI