The Delhi High Court fixed March 10 to hear Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s plea challenging an ED money laundering probe. Filed in 2022, the petition seeks quashing of the ECIR and summons linked to disproportionate assets allegations.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has scheduled a hearing for March 10 regarding a petition by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is challenging a money laundering investigation initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Shivakumar, a Congress leader, filed his petition in 2022, seeking to quash the entire investigation, which includes summoning orders linked to the Enforcement Case Information Record (ECIR) established by the agency in 2020, stemming from allegations of disproportionate assets.
A bench consisting of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja postponed the case after the senior counsel for the petitioner requested a delay.
The bench said,
“List on March 10,”
In his petition, Shivakumar contests the money laundering investigation on multiple grounds. He argues that the ED is re-examining the same allegations already investigated in a prior case from 2018.
In submissions made by his legal team, comprising Mayank Jain, Parmatma Singh, and Madhur Jain, Shivakumar maintains that the current investigation represents a second round of proceedings, constituting an abuse of legal process and a malicious exercise of authority.
On May 2, 2023, the high court ordered that the ED would be “bound” by its commitment that no coercive measures would be taken against Shivakumar in the matter. In its counter-affidavit, the ED refutes claims of re-investigation, asserting that the two ECIRs against Shivakumar are based on distinct facts and that the scheduled offenses involved differ. The agency further noted that the amount of illicit proceeds in each case varies.
According to the ED, the first ECIR relates to a scheduled offense under Section 120B of the IPC, with proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 8.59 crore. In contrast, the current ECIR focuses on disproportionate assets totaling Rs 74.93 crore, originating from a separate FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed in Bangalore on October 3, 2020, under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The ED claims that a preliminary inquiry conducted by the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Bureau in Bangalore revealed that Shivakumar and his family allegedly possessed assets disproportionate to their known income sources during the period from April 1, 2013, to April 30, 2018.
Lastly, the ED asserts that it’s generally premature to raise the issue of double jeopardy at the investigation stage and maintains that it would be improper to issue interim orders resembling final anticipatory bail in a lawsuit challenging the constitutional validity of specific provisions of the special act.
