New Delhi: Violent protests have been erupted today after the arrest of Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar.
The violence has forced the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to cancel bus services in Ramanagar district. On Wednesday morning, the KSRTC also suspended a majority of services between Bengaluru and Mysuru.
An official of the KSRTC said that Bengaluru – Mysuru bus services were stopped following the instructions of the local police. A few services were operated to Mysuru via Magadi. “Normal services will be resumed soon after getting clearance from the local police,” said an official of the KSRTC.
Meanwhile, DKShivkumar in a tweet appealed his supporters to remain calm. “
I appeal to my party cadre, supporters and well-wishers to not be disheartened as I have done nothing illegal.
I have full faith in God & in our country’s Judiciary and am very confident that I will emerge victorious both legally and politically against this vendetta politics.
— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) September 3, 2019
Congress has also condemned the arrest of DK Shivkumar. In a Statement, it said, “The arrest of Shri D K Shivakumar is a clear case of political vendetta by the fascist BJP government at the centre. After Shri P Chidambaram, yet another leader has been dubiously, vengefully and selectively targetted for standing up against the politics of horse-trading and subversion of mandate practiced by the BJP.”
As pliant cohorts in these actions, ED and CBI have proved to be the puppets of the Government at the Centre. In doing so an extremely worrisome and wrong trend has been set by the Modi Government to harass and hunt down and neutralize political opponents with fabricated allegations. Although there are well proved and explicit cases of black money transactions and money laundering during the political horse-trading in Karnataka by the BJP leaders, the central investigating agencies have not registered any cases against them, the statement added.
D K Shivakumar, being the strong and obedient Congress leader in Karnataka, was always a target of the BJP. Although he unhesitatingly appeared for the questioning and cooperated in investigations, the Enforcement Directorate is seemingly obeying the command from its masters., it further added.
The money laundering case registered by the ED last year is the fall out of an investigation carried out by the income tax department against Shivakumar in 2017 where Rs 8.83 crore in unaccounted cash was found in New Delhi in locations linked to the Congress leader. The ED had in September last year registered the money laundering case against Shivakumar and others based on a chargesheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax Department in a court here for alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores.