Laxmi Hebbalkar appears before ED in DK Shivakumar case
New Delhi: Karnataka Congress MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here in connection with the money laundering case against her senior party colleague D K Shivakumar, officials said.
They said the woman MLA, who represents Belagavi (Rural), arrived at the agency's officer here in Khan Market around 11 am.
The investigating officer of the case is expected to record her statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) even as she will be confronted with the statements made by Shivakumar and others, they said.
Hebbalkar had earlier confirmed to PTI the receipt of the summons.
Shivakumar, arrested by the ED on September 3 in a money laundering case, was on Tuesday remanded in judicial custody for 14 days till October 1 by a Delhi court.
The former minister was in the ED custody since his arrest. The agency had earlier summoned his daughter Aisshwarya in connection with the case and had recorded her statement. Three other alleged associates of Shivakumar have also been grilled by the ED.
It had in September last year registered the money laundering case against Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others.
The case was registered based on a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax Department against them last year before a special court here on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
