On Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to stay the tax evasion case against Congress leader DK Shivakumar. The court has also asked the IT department to file a reply in the case in 4 weeks' time.
The case emerged in 2017 following a raid by the department on his residence. In 2019, the Karnataka High Court had dismissed the plea by the politician to end the case against him.
Supreme Court asks IT department to file its response
On Thursday, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bode and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramaniun allowed the Income Tax Department to file their reply in the case within 4 weeks and posted it for further hearing.
The tax evasion case against Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar has been around since 2017 when the politician's house and office were raided in early August. This was in connection with tax irregularities. In the long-drawn raid, Rs 8 crores were seized from the politician's Delhi residence and Rs 2 crores from other locations.
While the politician was granted anticipatory bail, on September 3rd, 2019, he was arrested on charges of tax evasion and money laundering. In November 2019 according to LivLaw, the Congress chief filed a Special Leave Petition in the Karnataka High Court which was dismissed following which he moved the top court. His plea seeking discharge from the case was rejected.
According to Shivakumar's recent plea, it was stated that according to the Income Tax Act of 1961, the department may pursue criminal prosecution where the accused's explanation for the acquisition of money doesn't match up, arguing that in this case, the department pursued prosecution without waiting for returns to be filed.
Shivakumar's counsel argued that the politician can't be persecuted for concealing income due to the stage at which the IT department pressed charges.
DK Shivakumar is currently admitted to a hospital at Bengaluru upon testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.
