The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has escalated its legal battle by approaching the Supreme Court to challenge the Karnataka government’s decision to revoke its consent for the agency to continue its investigation into a disproportionate assets (DA) case against Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
This legal confrontation follows the recent decision by the Karnataka cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, which declared that the prior consent granted by the BJP government in 2019 for the CBI to take over the case was “not in accordance with law.” Consequently, the current government rescinded the sanction, leading to a complex legal showdown.
Earlier on August 29, 2023, the Karnataka High Court dismissed a joint petition by the CBI and BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, which sought to contest the Congress-led government’s withdrawal of consent, labeling the petition as “non-maintainable.”
Reacting to the High Court’s decision, Patil took his grievances to the Supreme Court. On September 17, the apex court’s bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notices to both Shivakumar and the Karnataka state government, seeking their responses on the matter.
In a pivotal move on December 26, 2023, the state government reassigned the investigation of the Rs 74.93 crore DA case against Shivakumar to the Lokayukta, stripping the CBI of its jurisdiction over this high-profile matter.
The allegations against Shivakumar date back to his tenure as a minister in the previous Congress government (2013-2018), where he is accused of accumulating assets significantly disproportionate to his known sources of income. The CBI officially registered the case on October 3, 2020, following a reference from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which itself was probing related corruption charges stemming from an income tax investigation.
Notably, Shivakumar also faced charges of money laundering related to the same set of financial irregularities, leading to his arrest by the ED in September 2019. He was later released on bail in October 2019. However, the Supreme Court offered him significant relief earlier this year by quashing the money laundering case against him on March 5, 2023, establishing that such charges must be closely tied to a scheduled offence.
The CBI’s appeal against the withdrawal of consent by Karnataka adds a significant layer to Shivakumar’s ongoing legal challenges and has broad political and legal ramifications, given his role as Deputy Chief Minister and his longstanding prominence in state politics.
