Relief for DK Shivakumar: SC quashes proceedings initiated against Karnataka Dy CM in 2018 money laundering case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a 2018 money laundering case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. The case was dismissed by a two-judge bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi, where unaccounted cash was found in Shivakumar's flats in Delhi in August 2017.

Shivakumar, who was elected as the deputy CM last year, was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in September 2019 in connection with this case. 

The Delhi High Court granted him bail in October 2019. The case was first filed by the Income Tax department in 2018 before a special court in Bengaluru. The tax department accused Shivkumar of transporting huge amounts of unaccounted cash on a regular basis through hawala' channels with the help of four other accused -- Sachin Narayan, Sunil Sharma, Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah, and Rajendra N. 

In 2022, the ED filed a prosecution complaint against Shivakumar alleging that as a Congress minister in Karnataka, he generated a huge amount of illegal wealth that was hidden away through a “criminal conspiracy” with associates.

In May 2023, the ED filed a charge sheet against him and some others linked to him in this case. He was then questioned in September in another money laundering case linked to the alleged possession of disproportionate assets.

Shivakumar had then accused the BJP of political vendetta and said he had full faith in the judiciary.

Shivakumar had moved the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court's 2019 order refusing to quash the ED summons issued to him in an alleged case of money laundering. The apex court's division bench admitted that the investigating agency was not successful in linking the source of the recovered cash to money laundering.