DK Shivakumar is in judicial custody till October 1 and his bail plea is pending before a trial court
The Delhi High Court said today that it would hear on September 26 the plea by Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar seeking a copy of his statements recorded by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
Justice Brijesh Sethi fixed the matter for the next date after Mr Shivakumar's lawyer said the senior advocate who has to argue the case was not available.
DK Shivakumar, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3, sought the court's direction to call for the transcript of his statements recorded by an Assistant Director of the ED under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He also sought from the court to hold that the probe agency has no jurisdiction to invoke provisions of PMLA against him.
DK Shivakumar, an MLA from Kanakapura assembly seat, is in judicial custody till October 1 and his bail plea is pending before a trial court.
In his plea before the high court, he claimed that the statement under Section 50 of the PMLA could only be recorded by the Director of the ED and the statement recorded by any other officer in his case be removed from the records.
He said that in no manner he can be linked to money laundering as contemplated under the PMLA and alleged that the Enforcement Directorate officers "for extraneous reasons, are trying to impute criminality into the same, so as to harass him".
The proceedings initiated against Mr Shivakumar are "laced with bias" at the behest of the Enforcement Directorate officials, the plea alleged, adding that the investigation was conducted with "political bias".
The trial court had earlier allowed the Enforcement Directorate to interrogate the politician in custody, saying the allegations made against him were serious in nature.