Karnataka HC upholds DK Shivakumar discharge in three I-T cases

The High Court on Monday dismissed three criminal revision petitions filed by the Income Tax department against KPCC President D K Shivakumar.

The Income Tax department had moved the High Court challenging the order of the special court for elected representatives, which discharged Shivakumar in three cases connected to the raids on him in August 2017.

Justice John Michael Cunha dismissed the petitions stating that no interference is called for on the orders passed by the special court.

The special court had discharged Shivakumar on February 28, 2019, in respect of three separate cases registered by the department.

Apart from the offences under the Income Tax Act, the department had also booked Shivakumar under Section 201 of the IPC for causing disappearance of evidence of offence.

The I-T department claimed that Shivakumar tore up a piece of paper during the raid at a resort near Bidadi.

The department claimed that interference by the special court was unwarranted and that the cases should progress. After the I-T department launched prosecution in the cases, Shivakumar had moved the special court seeking discharge from the cases.

He contended that the I-T department could not have launched prosecution even before culmination of assessment proceedings for 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Though the special court quashed the proceedings, it reserved the liberty for the department to launch a fresh prosecution, after estimating the undisclosed income.