Bengaluru: Congress leaders on Saturday cried foul over the Enforcement Directorate questioning the Congress leader D K Shivakumar in a money laundering case at New Delhi, saying the Centre was pursuing vendetta politics.
Shivakumar had to appear before the agency after the Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed his petition challenging the summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the case.
While making his first appearance on Friday, after he arrived by air from Bengaluru, the Kanakapura MLA had said he will cooperate with the ED probe. On Saturday also, he appeared before the agency for the second straight day.
Speaking to reporters at Mangaluru, former chief minister Siddaramaiah said, "There is a malafide political intention behind letting ED and Income Tax loose on D K Shivakumar. Let them do it as per the law but pursuing the politics of vendetta is not appropriate."
The Congress leader said the ED and I-T should stop tormenting Shivakumar unnecessarily. Congress spokesperson and former MP V S Ugrappa claimed that Shivakumar did not commit any economic offence as he has been portrayed.
Speaking to reporters at Munirabad in Koppal, Ugrappa said, "According to the information our party has, Shivakumar did not commit any economic offence..the charge that Rs seven crore or Rs eight crore was found from him was accounted for."
Stating that the party was rallying behind him, Ugrappa was confident that Shivakumar would come out clean and strengthen the party.
Meanwhile, deputy chief minister Govind Karjol rubbished the charges by the Congress leaders. He said the ED and I-T were independent agencies.
"Investigation against Shivakumar is a part of legal procedure. If he has not done anything wrong then nothing will happen to him and he cannot be sent to jail," Karjol said.
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