Congress leader D K Shivakumar likely to be produced before court on Friday

Karnataka Congress leader D K Shivakumar, arrested in a money laundering case, is likely to be produced before a Delhi court on Friday on expiry of his 9-day ED custody.

Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar had allowed the Enforcement Directorate to interrogate the politician in custody, saying the allegations made against him were serious in nature.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here on Thursday in connection with its money-laundering probe against him, the ED officials said.

The 22-year-old management graduate was questioned and her statement was recorded under PMLA.

According to the sources, she was also confronted with documents and statements made by Shivakumar with regard to a trip to Singapore he made with her in 2017.

Aishwarya is a trustee in an education trust floated by her father.

The trust, holding assets and businesses worth crores, operates a number of engineering and other colleges and Aishwarya is the main person behind them, they said.

The former cabinet minister and sitting MLA from Kanakapura seat had appeared before the ED for questioning on September 3 for the fourth time at its headquarters here.

After a long session of grilling, Shivakumar, 57, was placed under arrest as per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had in September last year registered the money laundering case against Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others.

Shivakumar had to appear before the ED after Karnataka High Court last week dismissed his petition challenging the summons issued to him by the agency.

The ED had filed the PMLA case against him and others 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 alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores.

The I-T department has accused Shivakumar and his alleged associate S K Sharma of transporting huge amount of unaccounted cash on a regular basis through 'hawala' channels with the help of three other accused.