DK Shivakumar’s judicial custody extended till Oct 15

A Delhi court Tuesday extended Congress leader D K Shivakumar’s judicial custody till October 15 and allowed the Enforcement Directorate to quiz him in jail.

Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar sent Shivakumar to further 14-day judicial custody after the ED sought extension of his custody.

The court also granted permission to the ED to quiz him in Tihar jail, where he is lodged, on October 4 and 5 after ED’s Special Public Prosecutor Amit Mahajan said Shivakumar could not be quizzed properly since he had to be admitted to the hospital due to various ailments. Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Shivakumar, submitted that he was not against ED interrogating the accused but the same had to be done as per the new prison manual.

Krishnan noted that as per the new manual, interrogation should not interfere with the time allotted for family members visits and meeting with lawyer. Besides, during the interrogation, investigating officer should be accompanied by only one officer of the ED. “We don’t want the entire ED to turn up for the interrogation,” he said.

Shivakumar also requested for some books to be provided to him in the jail, which was agreed by the court. The former minister was arrested by ED on September 3 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and is in judicial custody.

The case was based on a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax Department last year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and “hawala” transactions worth crores.