The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday night arrested Karnataka Congress trouble-shooter D.K. Shivakumar, who had staved off alleged poaching attempts by the BJP in at least two states, after questioning him in New Delhi for five days in connection with a Rs 7-crore money-laundering case.
The Congress alleged a witch-hunt and registered a strong protest, which soon spread to the streets of Karnataka where posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah were burnt. A tweet appeared on Shivakumar’s handle after the arrest, decrying the “BJP’s politics of vengeance and vendetta”.
In September last year, the ED had registered the money-laundering case against Shivakumar and others based on a chargesheet filed by the income tax department for alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions.
“I congratulate my BJP friends for finally being successful in their mission of arresting me. The IT and ED cases against me are politically motivated and I am a victim of BJP’s politics of vengeance and vendetta,” the message on Shivakumar’s Twitter handle said.
“I appeal to my party cadres, supporters and well-wishers to not be disheartened as I have done nothing illegal. I have full faith in God & in our country’s judiciary and am very confident that I will emerge victorious both legally and politically against this vendetta politics,” the tweet said.
Shivakumar, a seven-time MLA, had earlier filed a petition in Karnataka High Court challenging the summons issued to him by the ED. The court dismissed the petition last Thursday. Late that night, the ED issued fresh summons to him.
Congress leaders in Karnataka dubbed the arrest a witch-hunt. Congress Legislature Party leader P.C. Siddaramaiah tweeted: “Shivakumar will definitely come out clean and the whole country will understand the ulterior motives of @BJP4India. We are all with him in this difficult times & shall provide him full support.”
Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa of the BJP said he was not happy with Shivakumar’s arrest. “Let me tell you one thing, I am not happy with what happened to D.K. Shivakumar. I pray to God for him to come out of all this,” he said.
Congress lawmaker and former minister Priyank Kharge, son of Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, said: “This is a classic case of a witch-hunt and this is their standard operating procedure against anybody opposing the BJP and its ideology.”
Former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JDS questioned how anyone could be arrested for “non-cooperation”.
Protests broke out in several parts of Karnataka soon after news spread that Shivakumar had been arrested.
Protesters in Ramanagara near Bangalore raised slogans against Modi and the BJP. They blocked roads by burning tyres. Posters of Modi and Shah were burnt.
Similar protests took place in Bellary and other districts where Congress workers blocked roads and shouted slogans against Modi and Shah.
State Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao slammed the BJP for targeting Opposition leaders. “This is like a dictatorship. They do what they want by misusing the central agencies. We will support Shivakumar and we know he will come out clean,” he said.
The Congress will hold statewide protests on Wednesday.
Shivakumar has allegedly faced persecution since he efficiently herded 44 Gujarat MLAs to a holiday resort on the outskirts of Bangalore in August 2017. He single-handedly warded off threats of poaching from the BJP that was desperate to defeat Congress veteran Ahmed Patel in a key Rajya Sabha poll. Patel was eventually elected to the Upper House.
But Shivakumar had to leave the holiday resort when tax sleuths started raiding his properties in Bangalore, Mysore and Delhi. He was forced to remain at home to answer the investigators’ questions.
He had also held off the BJP when the party was allegedly trying to topple the then Congress-JDS government in Karnataka.
