If I’ve wronged, hang me: DK Shivakumar

Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Saturday declared that he had not committed any mistake, and that his 50-day incarceration had “made me stronger” and that “my fight will continue.”

Addressing an emotional news conference at the Congress headquarters here, Shivakumar said he spent his time in prison introspecting why he was in this situation.

“If I’ve done anything wrong, let God and the law punish me,” he said. “Whatever I have declared in my affidavit, including details about my wife and daughter, is before the people of the state and the country. It’s being talked about and investigated. If myself, my brother and any family member has gone against the law, I’m ready to accept any punishment,” he said. “If I’ve wronged, let them hang me.”

The Enforcement Directorate, Shivakumar said, had moved Supreme Court against his bail. “I’m also told that the state government has permitted the CBI to do an inquiry on me. I’m ready to face it,” he said. “My only case...whatever money laundering and the I-T case...this will be a big precedent in India,” he said.

Throughout, Shivakumar was measured in his comments, while never once launching a direct attack on the Modi administration or the BJP. “There’s only one thing I want to tell (investigating) officers - your experiments on me, regardless of who is behind it, let’s see how that goes,” he said.

The former minister vowed to make public in the coming days “facts and documents” related to his case. “By birth, I’m an agriculturist, businessman by profession, educationst by choice and politician by passion. I’ve not betrayed anyone at any point and I’ve never worked against my conscience.”

Trying to hold back tears, Shivakumar lamented how his 86-year-old mother was subpoenaed to appear in Delhi for questioning. “Imagine this happening to your mothers,” he said. “Emotionally, I’m hurting that my kids will be ridiculed as children of a father who went to jail.”

To buttress the point that he was being treated unfairly, Shivakumar said: “When I was energy minister, I used to give phones to MPs as a gift. I did this when I was the irrigation minister for which I got an I-T notice. Then, I paid for it from my personal account. Only three people didn’t take the phone, but all those who spoke about it and still took the phone were not given a notice for receiving a gift that cost above Rs 50,000,” he said.

While promising to reveal details of his 50-day imprisonment, Shivakumar quipped that his brief stay in the hospital was so strictly regulated that some visitors had to be smuggled in. “We had to get Dinesh Gundu Rao through the backdoor, while G Parameshwara was disguised as a doctor since he was dressed up in a suit,” Shivakumar said.

Thanking his party, his supporters, his “BJP friends” and the media, Shivakumar said he was not weakened. “I’ll fight for justice.”