Money Laundering Case: Delhi Court Permits K’taka Deputy CM Shivakumar to Travel Abroad

A Delhi court has granted permission to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, an accused in a money laundering case, to travel abroad.

Special Judge Vikas Dhull approved Congress member Shivakumar’s trip to Dubai from November 29 to December 3 based on his application.

The application stated that he had been invited to attend the upcoming COP28 Local Climate Action Summit in Dubai by His Excellency Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, COP28 President-Designate, and Michael R Bloomberg, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solution.

The judge, noting that the accused is an eight-time MLA and the current Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, considered the possibility of him fleeing from India as quite remote.

The judge imposed several conditions, including furnishing a Fixed Deposit Receipt (FDR) of Rs 5 lakh before the court, submitting a complete travel itinerary, and refraining from contacting co-accused or influencing witnesses while abroad. Shivakumar, granted bail on October 23, 2019, with the condition not to leave the country without court permission, argued that he had a history of returning to India after foreign trips and posed no flight risk.

The application asserted that the investigation was complete, a prosecution complaint had been filed, and the applicant had no criminal antecedents.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed the application, alleging Shivakumar’s involvement in a criminal conspiracy to move tainted cash and conceal its source.

Shivakumar was booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax Department in 2018, accusing him and his associate S K Sharma of engaging in transactions involving large amounts of unaccounted-for money through ‘hawala’ channels.