No bail for ailing DK Shivakumar yet, court hearing today

Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate's (ED) Designated Court in New Delhi on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on the bail petition filed by senior Congress leader and former Karnataka minister, D K Shivakumar,  to Thursday.

Mr Shivakumar, who is still in the cardio care unit (CCU) of the RML hospital as his blood pressure has not settled down, may have to remain in judicial custody till October 1 should his plea for bail be rejected.

The application by the Enforcement Directorate requesting the court's permission to interrogate him in judicial custody will also be heard on Thursday, should he fail to get bail. 

The court has left it to the doctors to decide how long the Congress leader will have to stay in hospital.  

Soon after the court met on Wednesday, Mr Shivakumar's cousel, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, informed it that of the property worth  Rs 108 crore owned by his daughter, Aishwarya, around Rs 79 crore was investment. She also had a Rs 40 crore loan, he added. The Congress leader's mother, Gowramma, too had taken a loan from Vijaya Bank, Mr Singhvi said.

Arguing that the ED was doing research and not an investigation, Mr Singhvi wondered how declared assets, that income tax returns were being filed for, could be called irregular.  Besides, Ms Aishwarya had the assets transferred to her from her father, he pointed out.  How could assets passed on from parents to children constitute an irregular transfer, he asked.

On the ED's claims on money seized from Sharma Transport and businessman, Sachin Narayan, Mr Singhvi said the former  was a 50-year-old business house in Bengaluru , which did a lot of cash transactions.

How could the ED claim that the cash seized from it belonged to Mr Shivakumar, he demanded.

As for Mr Sachin Narayan , he ran over 83 liquor shops and headed a cash -oriented business.

How could the money seized from him too be linked to Mr Shivakumar, he wondered.

Explaining the high value of the Congress leader's assets, Mr Singhvi said he  belonged to the farmer community, and the land value had appreciated sharply of late, which the ED had failed to take note of .

Although other two counsels, Mukul Rohtagi and  Dayan Krishnan were present in court, judge, Ajay Kumar Kuher asked for ED counsel and ASG, M K Nataraj. When Mr Nataraj did not turn up, he adjourned the hearing for Thursday.