Delhi High Court to hear D K Shivakumar's plea against ED probe on March 10

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday listed for hearing on March 10 a plea by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar against a money laundering probe by the Enforcement Directorate.

The Congress leader had moved the high court in 2022 seeking quashing of the entire investigation, including summons issued to him, in the Enforcement Case Information Record (ECIR) registered by the agency in 2020 following an alleged disproportionate assets case.

A bench headed by Justice Navin Chawla deferred the matter after a request for accommodation was made by the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner.

"List on March 10," the bench, also comprising Justice Ravinder Dudeja, said.

In his petition, Shivakumar has assailed the money laundering probe against him on several grounds, including that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was re-investigating the same offence which it had already investigated in a previous case lodged by it in 2018.

In its submissions filed through lawyers Mayank Jain, Parmatma Singh and Madhur Jain, Shivakumar has earlier said the present investigation constituted a second set of proceedings against him and was an abuse of process of law and a malafide exercise of power.

On May 2, 2023, the high court had ordered that the ED would be "bound" by its stand that there would be no coercive action against Shivakumar in the case.

Opposing the claim of re-investigation, the ED has said in its counter-affidavit that the two ECIRs against the petitioner were based on different sets of facts, and even the scheduled offences in both cases were different. The quantum of proceeds of crime involved was also different, it said.

The ED further said that as per the first ECIR, the scheduled offence pertains to Section 120B of the IPC, and the quantum of proceeds of crime recorded in it is Rs 8.59 crore.

The present ECIR, on the other hand, is related to disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 74.93 crore and emanated from a different FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lodged in Bangalore on October 3, 2020, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the reply has stated.

The ED has claimed that on the basis of a preliminary enquiry done by the CBI, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Bangalore, it was found that Shivakumar and his family were in alleged possession of assets disproportionate to the known source of income during the check period of April 1, 2013, to April 30, 2018.

The ED has said it was well settled that at the stage of investigation, it was premature to take the plea of double jeopardy and that it was wholly impermissible in a petition challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the special act to pass the interim orders in the nature of final anticipatory bail.