Siddu conspired DKShi’s arrest: Sriramulu

Team Udayavani, Sep 25, 2019, 10:29 AM IST

Bengaluru: After Karnataka state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday, September 24 alleged that former state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was the reason behind the arrest of Congress leader DK Shivakumar.

Addressing pressperson here he said, ” Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah prepared that action plan a long time ago to send DK Shivakumar to jail.”

He further added that Siddaramaiah’s main agenda was to destabilise coalition government led by then chief HD Kumaraswamy and remove Shivakumar from his way to clinch the opposition leader post.

It may be recalled that on September 8 Nalin Kumar Kateel had said, Shivakumar’s house was raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) when the Congress was at the helm of affairs in Karnataka in 2017. Siddaramaiah was the chief minister of the state then. I think Siddaramaiah did this because he saw DK Shivakumar’s growth, that’s the reason Siddaramaiah might be behind DK Shivakumar’s arrest.

Shivakumar, arrested by the ED on September 3 in a money laundering case, was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days till October 1 by a Delhi court.

The former minister was in the ED custody since his arrest.

The agency had earlier summoned his daughter Aishwarya in connection with the case and had recorded her statement.

Three other alleged associates of Shivakumar have also been grilled by the ED.

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

The case was registered based on a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax Department against them last year before a special court here on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores.