Furthering trouble for Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against him and others in connection with a case of money laundering.
He was arrested by the ED in the case in 2019, and a number of people and associates, including his daughter Aisshwarya and Congress MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar, were questioned by the agency. At present, he is on bail.
The charge sheet was filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In September 2017, the ED 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's case was based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax Department against him in 2017 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.
The IT Department had then accused Shivakumar and his associate S K Sharma of transporting huge amounts of unaccounted cash on a regular basis through 'hawala' channels with help of three other accused.
It had claimed that Shivakumar had set up "an extensive network" of persons and premises across Delhi and Bengaluru in order to transport and utilise unaccounted cash.
According to investigators, Narayan is Shivkumar's business partner while Sharma runs a transport firm. Hanumanthaiah is claimed to have handled unaccounted cash of Shivakumar in Delhi while Rajendra, who works for Sharma, also deals with Shivkumar's immovable properties.
The Income Tax Department had claimed that it had seized unaccounted cash around Rs 20 crore from Shivakumar's premises during raids in New Delhi and Bengaluru earlier.