Court to pronounce order on D K Shivakumar's regular bail on August 2

A special court in Delhi on Saturday said it will pronounce its order on bail application by Congress leader D K Shivakumar in money laundering case on August 2.

Shivakumar and other accused persons including entrepreneur Sachin Narayan, Sharma Transport owner Sunil Kumar Sharma, Karnataka Bhavan Employee Anjaneya and Rajendra N approached the special court seeking a regular bail in a money laundering case lodged against them by the Enforcement Directorate.

Senior Counsel Dayankrishnan appearing for Shivakumar said his interim bail should be converted as regular bail as he is suffering from health problems. Moreover, he is not in power and is just an MLA, there is no fear of tampering with the evidence, Dayakrishnan argued.

Since the ED filed a charge sheet in the money laundering case, regular bail should be granted, the senior advocate argued.

However, the advocate, representing the ED, opposed granting regular bail saying the cases, filed against the accused persons, are serious in nature and they are influential persons. The advocate representing the ED said that a money laundering case was registered against Shivakumar after Rs 8.59 crore cash was seized from his Safdarjung Enclave apartment.

Special judge Vikas Dhull said he will pronounce the order on August 2 and asked all the accused to be present in the court on that day.

Based on the Income Tax probe, the ED registered a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case against Shivakumar in 2018 and he was arrested by the agency on September 3, 2019, before being ordered to be released from the Tihar jail on bail on October 23, 2019, by the Delhi High Court. Last month, the ED filed a charge sheet against accused persons.