The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the 2018 money laundering case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. The case relates to the unaccounted cash which was found in the Congress leader’s Delhi flat in August 2017.
A bench of justices Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan granted the relief to Shivakumar. “The proceedings initiated against appellants under PMLA are hereby quashed,” the top court said.
Shivakumar had moved the apex court against the High Court’s 2019 order refusing to quash the Enforcement Directorate summons issued to him in an alleged case of money laundering.
“Question of whether 120B IPC (criminal conspiracy) can constitute a predicate standalone offence, to enable ED to invoke Prevention Against Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has already been decided by SC,” the top court said.
Review against that order is pending, the SC said adding that if the federal agency’s review plea is accepted, the top court grants liberty to it to “seek recall of today’s order”.
Shivakumar was booked for alleged offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The case was based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax department in 2018 before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and ‘hawala’ transactions worth crores of rupees.
The IT department had accused the Karnataka deputy CM and his alleged associate SK Sharma of indulging in transactions involving huge amounts of unaccounted for money on a regular basis through hawala channels with the help of three other accused.
Shivakumar was granted bail in connection with the money laundering on October 23, 2019 by the Delhi High Court, with the condition that he will not leave the country without the permission of the court.
(With PTI inputs)
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