In a major setback to Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday refused to quash a corruption case registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly possessing assets worth ₹74.93 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income during the check period 2013-2018.
While declining to accept Mr. Shivakumar’s contention that the first information report (FIR) was registered by the CBI with “malafide and political malice”, the court pointed out that the investigation was carried out based on the voluminous documents and evidence collected by the three agencies — the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the CBI.
The court directed the CBI to complete the probe, which the investigation agency claimed was 90% complete, within a period of three months and submit the final report to the jurisdictional court.
