BENGALURU: An
economic offences court here on Thursday granted bail to energy minister
D K Shivakumar in three cases of income tax evasion against him, after he appeared before it.
As Congressmen were launching a raucous protest in front of the Income Tax department office near Minsk Square in protest against the central department’s vindictive attitude, Shivakumar entered the magistrate courts’ complex on Nrupathunga Road, less than three km away, around 10.30 am, half an hour before the judge was to start proceedings.
Accompanied by his MP-brother DK Suresh and a few supporters, the minister went straight into the court hall on the second floor. The media was barred from entering the otherwise crowded court hall.
Once his case was called, the minister presented himself before the judge, M S Alva. As his battery of lawyers, led by senior counsel MV Seshachala, and advocates representing the Income Tax department argued whether he was to be given bail or nor, Shivakumar stood for over 30 minutes.
Noticing that the minister appeared tired, the judge asked him to sit down.
The I-T department lawyers argued that the minister had admitted while replying to the queries of the investigators that he had torn a slip which had recorded money trail and the probe into it was still on.
The defence lawyers contended that the sum of the amount of money trail that is said to have been entered on the piece of paper did not even total to Rs 20 as the entries indicated just the numbers such as 5 and 7 among others.
They said the cases of economic offences filed against Shivakumar were bailable and the charges of destroying evidence were subject to trial.
After over-an-hour-long arguments, the judge posted the bail petition for orders at 3pm. Shivakumar left the court premises around 12.30pm and was back in time. The judge pronounce the order granting bail to Shivakumar in three minutes.
As per the bail conditions, Shivakumar submitted to the court three personal bonds each of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 25,000 cash deposit in each of the three cases.
The three cases against Shivakumar pertain to three income tax assessment years from 2015-16. The I-T department has charged Shivakumar with attempting to destroy “crucial” evidence during I-T raids on him at Eagleton Golf resort on the city outskirts on August 2.
Income tax officials had produced as evidence documents where the minister admitted to have unintentionally torn a loose sheet on which he had allegedly entered some financial transactions, and regretted it. The officials claimed they had gathered the bits, pieced them together, and took down the details of the companies and individuals who allegedly owed money to the minister.
