ED probes authenticity of letter produced by DKS

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has informed the Delhi High Court that it is investigating a certificate purportedly issued by a Tahsildar submitted by former Minister D K Shivakumar, claiming that his father had agriculture income to the tune of Rs 25 lakh.

During the hearing of the bail application filed by Shivakumar, who is in judicial custody in the money laundering case, the ED claimed that though the investigating agency recorded his statements 12 times from August 30 to September 12, he did not produce the documentary evidence for agriculture income earned by his father.

“However, in the instant bail application, the applicant (Shivakumar) has mentioned about a certificate from the tahsildar to justify his father's agriculture income. It prima facie appears to have been created as an afterthought since there is neither any date of issuance of the certificate nor the tahsildar has recorded the basic details like land holdings, crops grown, etc, for certifying the agriculture income to the tune of Rs 25 lakh. This is under investigation,” the ED submitted to the High Court.

The ED also informed the court that Anjaneya H, an assistant liaison office office of the Karnataka government is a close associate of Shivakumar and was involved in handling of cash in Delhi.

"He (Anjaneya) is a government employee and has deposed before ED that he was paid Rs 1.5 lakh per annum by Shivakumar. A search was conducted at his residence on September 4, 2019 and it was found that his mobile phone was formatted on the day of receipt of the summons from ED. Formatting of mobile phone was done with an intention to destroy the evidence of communication with applicant regarding cash movement," the ED informed the court.

The ED claimed that two laptops and mobile phone recovered during the search at Anjaneya's House in Delhi belonged to Shivakumar. The applicant (Shivakumar) has tried to hide the evidences by placing his personal laptops in some other person's custody. These laptops have been sent for forensic examination.

The HC has already reserved its judgement on Shivakumar's bail application. The Supreme Court had granted protection from arrest to Anjaneya.