Day before DKS' custody ends, ED grills Aisshwarya

Senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya appeared before the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday for questioning in a money laundering case in which her father is arrested.

Aisshwarya, a 22-year-old management graduate, was questioned for 6-7 hours with sources saying that she was quizzed about the investments made by Shivakumar in her name. Her statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

She has been asked to appear before the ED investigators once again at 11 AM on Friday.

On Thursday, she arrived at the ED office with Kunigal MLA Dr Ranganath just before 11 AM and left at around 7 PM.

The questioning came a day before Shivakumar's ED custody is ending. He was arrested on September 3 and a court had sent him to ED custody till September 13.

During the questioning, sources said, Shivakumar was also brought face to face with his daughter and there was joint interrogation.

In between, Shivakumar was taken to Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital as he complained about health problems. He was later brought back to the ED office.

Aisshwarya's questioning came as investigators claimed they wanted to question her on a trip the father-daughter duo made to Singapore in 2017.

She is also a trustee in an education trust floated by Shivakumar and the trust operates a number of engineering and other colleges and this also came up during the questioning.

Last September, the ED had registered a case against Shivakumar as well as Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan, and his associates Narayan, S K Sharma and N Rajendra.

The ED case was based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax Department against him last year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores. The IT Department had also seized unaccounted money worth around Rs 8.59 crore from him.