A special court in Delhi refused to increase the time allotted to Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar, to meet his family and lawyers, on Monday, September 9. DK Shivakumar is currently under Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till September 13. The Congress leader, through an application, sought to extend visitation period from 30 minutes to 1 hour, however, the court turned his request down.

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Shivakumar in custody till September 13

D K Shivakumar is currently under ED custody till September 13, in connection with an alleged money laundering case, his bail application will be heard on the same day as well. A Delhi court on September 4 sent Congress leader to ED custody. Earlier, while seeking remand, ED had sought Shivakumar's custody asserting that he gave evasive replies and remained non-cooperative during the investigation.

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Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Natraj told the court that there is a reason to believe that Shivakumar is guilty of laundering money and his custodial interrogation is required to confront him with documents. The counsel further contended that the assets of his whole family have grown phenomenally over the past few years. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Shivakumar, strongly opposed the remand application of the agency and said that a bail application has been moved on his behalf.

Karnataka High Court dismissed his petition

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On August 29, the Karnataka High Court had dismissed his petition challenging the summons issued by the ED in December 2018. Later that night, he was summoned by the law enforcement agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and was asked to appear before it on August 30, following which he was interrogated for four days.

The 57-year-old leader had earlier asserted that he has not done anything wrong and will fully cooperate with the investigating agency. Last September ED had filed a money laundering case against the Congress leader, Haumanthaiah (Employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi), and others after carrying out intensive raids on August 2017. The case was filed based on a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax (IT) Department before a special court in Bengaluru on the charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transaction worth crores. The  IT department had accused Shivakumar and his associate S K Sharma of transporting a big amount of unaccounted tax through 'hawala' channels with the help of three other accused in the case. 

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(Inputs from ANI)