Karnataka Cabinet approves proposal to withdraw CBI probe against deputy CM Shivakumar

BENGALUGU: The Congress-ruled Karnataka government has approved a proposal to withdraw the CBI probe against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar in the alleged disproportionate assets case.

The decision in this regard was taken in the Cabinet meeting held at Vidhansoudha on Thursday under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. After the Cabinet meeting, Minister HK Patil informed the media about this issue.

Talking about the state cabinet's nod to the proposal, Congress leader and Karnataka Law Minister HK Patil said the former BJP-led state government's decision to hand over the case to CBI was "not in accordance with the law".

"The Cabinet has considered very carefully, the wrong decision that was taken by the last government (BJP). We have considered the opinion given by the advocate general of the last government and also our advocate general. The cabinet has come to a decision that the decision taken by the previous government was not in accordance with the law... We have known that the decision taken by the last government was not in accordance with the law," Patil said while talking to reporters.

A total of 577 cases of property beyond income have been registered so far. However, not a single case has been investigated by the CBI. The local police have investigated.

Keeping this in mind, the state government has given big relief to Shivakumar. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cannot cancel or stay the investigation pending the hearing of the CBI case in the court. According to Shivakumar's office, Congress MLA Zameer Ahmad Khan faced similar charges but the BJP government decided to transfer his case to the Lokayukta.

The CBI filed an FIR against DK Shivakumar in 2018, and then Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa agreed to hand over the case to the central probe agency in 2019. The CBI is probing a case against Shivakumar for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Earlier, Income Tax conducted a search against him.