DK Shivakumar calls Supreme Court’s decision in CBI disproportionate assets case ‘unfair’

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Bangalore: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has termed the Supreme Court’s dismissal of his petition challenging the CBI’s FIR in a disproportionate assets case as “unfair”. The senior Congress leader expressed disappointment in an interview with NDTV, saying: “It’s a setback. What to do? It’s unfair.”

Shivakumar, who has been involved in legal battles over the case, pointed out the political nature of the investigations. He said: “Everyone knows how political and vindictive they are… my problems continued. When the BJP government was there, they gave (the CBI) permission to register an FIR. I asked for it to be quashed, but they said they couldn’t.”

Despite the Karnataka government, now under Congress rule, withdrawing its consent to the CBI probe and transferring the case to the Lokayukta, the CBI is continuing its investigation. “This is despite the government withdrawing its consent,” Shivakumar noted.

Earlier in the day, a bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma ruled that Shivakumar’s petition had no merit, which did not warrant the court’s intervention in the matter. The decision came after the Congress government last year revoked its consent to the CBI probe, a move that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said was necessary because his predecessor, BJP’s BS Yediyurappa, had allegedly authorised the probe “illegally”. The withdrawal of consent was criticised by the opposition BJP and JDS as an “immoral” act to “protect” Shivakumar.

The CBI has accused DK Shivakumar of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2013 and 2018, during his tenure as a minister in the Congress-led state government. The amount in question is said to be Rs 74 crore. The CBI filed the case in 2020, and the FIR was later challenged and dismissed by the High Court in 2021.

In November, the Karnataka government tried to withdraw the CBI’s permission to investigate Shivakumar, but the High Court lifted the stay and ordered the CBI to submit a report within three months.

On another note, DK Shivakumar spoke about the ongoing issue of sharing of Cauvery waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He sounded optimistic, saying, “I am happy to say that we are getting good rains. We should be in a better position in the coming days.” Karnataka has decided to provide only 8,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu, instead of the mandatory 11,500 cusecs per day from July 12 to 31. The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, allied with the Congress at the national and state levels, is planning to hold an all-party meeting to take up the issue, with Chief Minister MK Stalin saying Karnataka’s refusal is in violation of the Supreme Court order.