Delhi HC to hear DK Shivakumar's plea against money laundering probe in Jan

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday posted on January 23 a plea by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar against a money laundering probe by the Enforcement Directorate.

A bench comprising Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma deferred the matter saying it was not possible for it to commence the hearing on Tuesday.

"Counsel appearing for the parties say the matter will take some time. Owing to the part-heard matters already listed in court, it would not be possible to commence hearing. List on January 23," said the bench.

Shivakumar moved the high court in 2022 seeking quashing of the investigation, including summons issued to him in the ECIR (complaint) registered by the agency in 2020 following an alleged disproportionate assets case.

The senior counsel appearing for the petitioner said their arguments would take "half-a-day" as important issues were involved.

In his petition, Shivakumar challenged the money laundering probe against him on several grounds, including the one where he argued the ED was re-investigating the same offence already probed by it in another case in 2018.

In its submissions filed through advocates Mayank Jain, Parmatma Singh and Madhur Jain, Shivakumar said the present investigation constituted a second set of proceedings against him and was an abuse of process of law and a malafide exercise of power.

On May 2, 2023, the high court ordered that ED would be "bound" by its stand that there would be no coercive action against Shivakumar in the case.

ED has opposed the petition on the ground that the two ECIRs lodged by the agency pertained to separate cases with certain overlapping of facts which cannot be termed as re-investigation.

The probe agency contended that the two ECIRs against the petitioner were based on different set of facts and even the scheduled offence in both the cases were different and the quantum of proceeds of crime involved was also different.

According to the ED, while the first ECIR had criminal conspiracy under Section 120B of IPC as the scheduled offence with Rs 8.59 crore in proceeds of crime, the case at hand related to the disproportionate assets amounting to Rs 74.93 crore, stemming from a CBI FIR lodged in Bengaluru on October 3, 2020 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The central probe agency claimed on the basis of a preliminary inquiry done by the CBI, ACB, Bengaluru, it was found that Shivakumar and his family members were in the alleged possession of wealth disproportionate to their the known sources of income during the check period between April 1, 2013 and April 30, 2018.

ED further said it was well settled that at the stage of investigation, it was premature to take the plea of double jeopardy and that it was wholly impermissible in a petition challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the special act to pass interim orders in the nature of final anticipatory bail.