Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi visited former Karnataka Water Resource Minister DK Shivakumar at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Monday.
Sonia Gandhi was accompanied by Karnataka in-charge and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal. The two leaders arrived at Tihar Jail to meet Shivakumar, who has been in judicial custody for over a month after being arrested in the alleged money laundering case.
Congress sources say that Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with DK Shivakumar lasted for around 30 minutes. This is the second time the Congress supremo has visited Tihar Jail in the last couple of months. In September, Sonia Gandhi visited former Union Minister P Chidambaram, who has been lodged in judicial custody in the INX Media case.
Sonia Gandhi’s visit comes just hours ahead of DK Shivakumar’s bail hearing in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday. “Her visit was to show solidarity for DK Shivakumar. Her visit was to show that even if Shivakumar got bail or not, the party would back him completely,” the source said.
Congress insiders say that Sonia Gandhi’s visit was also meant as a message to party leaders and DK Shivakumar’s detractors in Karnataka that the high command has offered him complete support. “There are many factions in the Karnataka Congress and Sonia Gandhi’s visit is also a message to those who wanted Dk Shivakumar’s wings clipped that the party will back him completely and also a reminder that it is not the time for petty infighting,” the source added.
The 57-year-old legislator was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3 on allegations of money laundering. DK Shivakumar was denied by the Special CBI court in New Delhi earlier in September. Shivakumar had challenged the trial court’s order that had denied him bail.
The Enforcement Directorate had opposed DK Shivakumar’s bail plea alleging that he would intimidate witnesses as he is an influential person and that he could also tamper with evidence due to the influence he holds in the country.
DK Shivakumar, is a seven-time MLA from Karnataka and was booked under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) along with a former employee of Karnataka Bhavan Hanumantha, Sunil Kumar Sharma and another associate after the Income Tax Department filed a chargesheet against Shivakumar in 2018. The I-T Department had accused Shivakumar of tax evasion and setting up hawala networks to convert black money to white.