ED to question Shivakumar’s daughter on Sept 12

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned daughter of former Karnataka Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is under the financial probe agency's custody, for questioning as part of its probe into the money laundering case.

"We have summoned Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya for questioning in the money laundering case on September 12," a senior ED official told IANS.

The official said while scrutanising the financial dealings of Shivakumar, the agency found documents pertaining to a trust handled by his daughter. "To get the details of functioning of the trust and its financial transactions, we have summoned Aishwarya for questioning," he said.

The summons to Aishwarya also follows the allegations that the Congress leader had invested several crores in her name.

The ED arrested Shivakumar on September 3 after questioning him for over two days in connection with case. A day later, a Delhi court sent Shivakumar to 10-day ED custody.

If required, said the official, the ED would also confront Aishwarya with documents of the financial transaction of the trust. Aishwarya was also part of the 2017 business deal in Singapore with Coffee Day and Soul Space, he said.

The IT department had seized documents pertaining to the business deal from the residence of Shivakumar's financial assistant N Chandrashekar.

In his 2018 election affidavit, Shivakumar had declared Rs 618 crore assets and Rs 108 crore properties in the name of his daughter.

Shivakumar has been on the radar of the Income-Tax Department and the ED since demonetisation in 2016.

An Income-Tax search at his New Delhi flat on August 2, 2017 led to seizure of Rs 8.59 crore unaccounted cash. Thereafter, the I-T Department lodged cases against the Congress leader and his four associates under sections 277 and 278 of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, and sections 120(B), 193 and 199 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).