ED grills Co-operative Bank chief after Delhi court dismisses DK Shivakumar's bail plea

New Delhi, Oct 09: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned the president of Karnataka State Apex Co-operative Bank in connection with a probe into the money laundering case filed against Congress leader D K Shivakumar.

The investigating agency had summoned K N Rajanna to probe his role in sanctioning loan to a sugar firm owned by a close associate of Shivakumar.

The Delhi court on September 25 dismissed the bail plea of Shivakumar, who was arrested in a money laundering case by the ED. Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar declined to grant any relief to Shivakumar, currently lodged in Tihar jail.

While refusing the relief, the trial court had said Shivakumar is an influential person, and if released at the crucial stage of the investigation, may influence witnesses or tamper with documents to hamper the probe.

Shivakumar was arrested on September 3 and will be in the judicial custody in Tihar jail till October 15. He was placed under arrest under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The money laundering case was registered against Shivakumar by the ED in September last year, based on a complaint filed by the Income Tax department, alleging tax evasion, hawala transactions running into crores.

In the last hearing, the court had allowed ED to interrogate Shivakumar on October 4 and 5 inside jail.

Earlier, ED has interrogated his brother and Congress lawmaker DK Suresh, daughter Aishwariya Shivakumar and Karnataka Belagavi MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar in connection with the probe.