The Congress troubleshooter and former minister from Karnataka DK Shivakumar has been granted bail by the Delhi High Court on Wednesday (October 23).
The bail has been granted to DK Shivakumar and the order was passed by a single-judge bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait. The Delhi HC has granted the conditional bail on a personal bond of Rs 25 lakh and has also asked DKS to surrender his passport to the court.
The bail comes after the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi visited him on Wednesday morning. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over an alleged case of money laundering on September 3. The ED had arrested Shivakumar under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a complaint filed by the Income Tax (IT) department after a raid was conducted on his properties in 2017 and seized Rs 8.83 crore from his Delhi apartment.
Earlier, the court had rejected the Congress leader's bail plea multiple times. The investigating agency had also questioned his daughter Aisshwarya and brother, Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh for the drastic increase in their wealth.
In his 2019 election affidavit, Suresh had declared assets worth Rs 338 crore while his 2014 affidavit was valued at Rs 85 crore. His wealth has grown increased nearly four-fold within a span of just five years. Suresh had alleged that his brother was being grilled by the central agencies as he refused to join the saffron party.
A 23-year-old Aisshwarya also had a radical increase in her wealth which is reported to be Rs 108 crores. DKS said that his daughter was not dependent on his income and that he was declaring her assets as per the Representation of Peoples Act. Belagavi (Rural) MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar was also grilled by the ED questioned in connection with the case.
DK Shivakumar was held in judicial custody at Delhi's Tihar jail for offences punishable under Section 276C(1), 277 and 278 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 read with Section 193, 199 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
