SC grants protection to Shivakumar's co-accused

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from arrest to a Karnataka Bhawan employee and a former staffer, who are co-accused with former minister and senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar in a money-laundering case.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Surya Kant and V Ramasubramanian granted relief to petitioners Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah and Rajendra N on their plea against the summons issued by the ED to them.

The court issued notice to the investigating agency on a special leave petition as well as writ petition filed by them. The petitioners were represented by senior advocate A M Singhvi.

“No coercive action shall be taken against the petitioners in the meanwhile,” the bench said.

The Karnataka High Court had last month dismissed the plea by Anjaneya and others in connection with the summons issued by the ED.

The ED had in September 2018 registered the money-laundering case against Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah and others.

The case was based on a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax department against them last year before a special court in Bengaluru, on charges of tax evasion and ‘hawala’ transactions worth crores of rupees.

The I-T department has accused Shivakumar and his alleged associates of transporting huge amount of unaccounted cash on a regular basis through ‘hawala’ channels with the help of the other accused.