Sonia Gandhi meets DK Shivakumar in Tihar jail, assures him of support

Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday morning met Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar in Tihar jail and assured him of all support from the party. Shivakumar, 57, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on September 3 in a money laundering case. He is lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody.

Gandhi was accompanied by Congress general secretary Ambika Soni and Congress MP DK Suresh, who is also the brother of Shivakumar.

Suresh said the Congress president assured Shivakumar that the party is with him and will stand in his support. Gandhi told Shivakumar that this is a case of "political vendetta" and other Congress leaders are also being targeted like this by the BJP government at the Centre, he said. "We have to fight them and come out of this," Suresh said, quoting the Congress president.

Shivakumar, a seven-time MLA in Karnataka, was booked along with Haumanthaiah - an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi - and others for alleged offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The case was based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax Department against them last year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and ''hawala'' transactions worth crores or rupees.

Earlier, Gandhi had met former finance minister P Chidambaram when he was lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the INX Media case.

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