Setback for D.K. Shivakumar in Supreme Court over CBI case against him

New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s plea to quash a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against him in a disproportionate assets case.

A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and S.C. Sharma said it was not inclined to interfere with the Karnataka High Court order. “Sorry. Dismissed,” the bench said.

Reacting to the development, Shivakumar said, “All of the scams have been created by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP tenure is the father of scams which is why they have been thrown out by people. Now, we are trying to clean up everything. They aren’t able to digest this since their names will come out.”

The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by Shivakumar against the Oct. 19, 2023, order of Karnataka High Court which rejected his plea.

The High Court also directed the CBI to conclude the investigation and file the report within three months. The CBI has alleged that Shivakumar amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2013 and 2018. He was a Minister in the previous Congress government during this period.

FIR on Sept. 3, 2020

The FIR was filed by the CBI on Sept. 3, 2020. Shivakumar challenged the FIR in the High Court in 2021. The CBI has challenged the Congress government’s decisions: One from Nov. 28, 2023, withdrawing consent for the agency to investigate Shivakumar’s assets and another from Dec. 26, 2023, referring the matter to the Karnataka Lokayukta.

In addition to seeking to quash these decisions, the CBI has requested an interim stay on the two government orders.

Originally, the CBI case, along with a similar petition by BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, was brought before a single judge of High Court. However, on Jan. 5, 2024, judge referred the case to Chief Justice of Karnataka to assign it to a larger Bench due to the complex legal issues involved.

The CBI registered a disproportionate assets case against Shivakumar on Oct. 3, 2020, based on consent from the previous BJP government on Sept. 25, 2019, following a referral from the Directorate of Enforcement related to corruption charges that emerged after an Income Tax probe.

The Congress government, which replaced the BJP in Karnataka in May 2023, withdrew the consent given in 2019 after a Cabinet decision on Nov. 23, 2023. The Congress has argued that the case was referred to the CBI in 2019 even before an FIR was registered in 2020.