King Pinned

The arrest of Congress master strategist D.K. Shivakumar has put his political ambitions on the line.

- Prathima Nandakumar

CRISIS AFTER CRISIS has hit the Congress party in Karnataka, and now it is the turn of the party’s go-to man, D. K. Shivakumar, to feel the heat. Two years after his properties in Delhi and Bengaluru were raided by income tax sleuths to unearth stashes of unaccounted cash, the former minister has been arrested by the Enforcement Department on charges of money laundering. This has put the opposition on the warpath; they had already been claiming that the Centre has been misusing investigative agencies.

After four days of interrogation at the ED offices in Lok Nayak Bhawan in Delhi, Shivakumar’s sudden detention on September 3 came as a jolt to the Vokkaliga strongman, who was hoping to be appointed the next state Congress chief. When investigating officers tried to quietly bundle him out of the ED office for a medical check-up prior to his detention, a huge gathering outside turned chaotic on sensing their leader’s arrest.

“I am not a coward. It is political vendetta,” screamed Shivakumar and waved at his supporters. Shivakumar spent the night at the hospital as he had high blood pressure, and was produced before the Special Court for Economic Offences the next evening. The court granted the ED custody till September 13. The arrest triggered massive protests by Congress workers across Karnataka. Buses were stoned, vehicles were torched and highways blocked the next day, particularly in Bengaluru and Kanakapura, Shivakumar’s constituency.