New Delhi: Karnataka Congress leader D.K. Suresh was interrogated for about seven hours by the Enforcement Directorate on October 3 in connection with the cases of money laundering and tax evasion registered against his brother and state Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar.
Suresh is the second person from Shivakumar’s family to have been quizzed by the central agency in the case. On September 12, Shivakumar’s daughter Aisshwarya was also interrogated by the ED for seven hours. ED officials have questioned Sachin Narayan, a close aide of Shivakumar’s, as well.
Shivakumar, a minister in the previous Kumaraswamy government, had played a crucial role in keeping the BJP out of power in the 2018 assembly polls. The Vokkaliga leader who shot to fame by defeating former prime minister H.D. Devegowda in 1989, is also given credit for bringing together his party and the Janata Dal (Secular) to form the government in Karnataka.
Shivakumar had also attracted BJP’s ire in Gujarat by moving 42 state Congress MLAs to his resort in Bengaluru just before the Rajya Sabha elections, which helped party stalwart Ahmed Patel to win back his Rajya Sabha seat.
Considered close to the Gandhi family, Shivakumar also ensured the win of his brother, D.K. Suresh, in the recent general elections. Suresh is the only Congress MP to have won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Karnataka.
D.K. Shivakumar and his brother D.K. Suresh flank Rahul Gandhi. Photo: Twitter/@DKSureshINC
Most recently, however, he played a leading role in attempting to salvage the Congress-JD(S) government from collapsing under BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa’s successful bid to overthrow it for power in Karnataka.
On September 4, ED arrested Shivakumar under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case of tax evasion and for allegedly having used hawala channels. The case had been registered against him last year.
Shivakumar is under judicial custody till October 15 and is currently lodged at the Tihar Jail in Delhi. The court has allowed the ED to interrogate Shivakumar at Tihar on October 4 and 5.
Shivakuamr’s arrest was condemned by both Congress and JD(S) leaders, who have called it an act of “political vendetta” by BJP.
News reports from Bengaluru, quoting ED sources, have said that Suresh, the sitting MP from Bangalore Rural constituency, owned 27 properties and this “needed to be probed.”
After coming out of the ED office, Suresh told waiting reporters that he had answered all queries put to him by ED officials and did not want to divulge more.
Suresh has also been summoned for yet another session of interrogations on October 4, which will coincide with that of his brother’s at Tihar.