Bengaluru: A day after the Income Tax department raided Karnataka’s Power Minister DK Shivakumar, the beleaguered Congress leader found more grief with a private complaint being filed against his associates in the Enforcement Directorate. Guruprasad, a resident of Bidadi in Bengaluru’s suburbs, has filed a complaint seeking an ED probe into money laundering allegations against five associates of Shivakumar. These include his astrologer Dwarakanath, who was also raided by the IT department on Wednesday, Shivakumar’s private secretary Sridhar, G V Balaram, the MD of Karnataka Renewable Energy Dev Ltd, Sachin Narayan a businessman and Puttaswamy Gowda, an electrical contractor. The complainant, who claims to be a whistle-blower, alleged that almost every person in Shivakumar’s constituency had been asked to facilitate exchange of demonetised notes up to Rs 2 lakh, and Narayan helped facilitate this too. The complaint alleges that Shivakumar’s astrologer is also a key hawala operator and helped in money-laundering. Besides, he names two retired judges of the Karnataka High Court of colluding with the astrologer to land a ‘deal’ on cases. However, the complainant has not given any documentary evidence. The complainant also accuses the Minister’s associates of a major solar scam in the land acquisition and execution of the solar park project in Pavagada. The complainant claims that Shivakumar too had visited the I-T department in disguise to find out what was happening with regard to complaints against him, and seeks a probe against him for possible offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). He claims black money has been sent to Dubai through hawala channels and these deserve a thorough investigation. Sources close to Shivakumar, who have so far cried political vendetta, brushed off the private complaint saying anyone can file a complaint in any forum.
Source:News18
