DA case against Shivakumar: BJP government did not follow law, CM says, defending withdrawal of sanction to CBI

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday defended the Cabinet’s decision to withdraw the sanction given to the CBI, four years ago, to probe Deputy CM DK Shivakumar in a disproportionate assets (DA) case he is currently enmeshed in.The CM, in a chat with the media, maintained that the then CM BS Yediyurappa did not follow the procedures when he handed over the case to the CBI in 2019. The CM should have taken permission from the Assembly Speaker and considered the opinion of the Advocate General before handing the case to the CBI because Shivakumar was a sitting member of the House. But Yediyurappa gave verbal instructions to the then Chief Secretary who in turn handed the probe to the CBI. The series of events did not go as per law, he said.

The High Court had, last month, dismissed a plea from Shivakumar praying for quashing the CBI investigations into the DA case registered against him. The Court vacated the stay, paving the way for the CBI to go ahead with the probe. The Court also asked the central agency to complete the investigation in three months.

The Deputy CM has appealed the judgment, and the case was expected to come up this month. When the media asked Siddaramaiah if the Cabinet took the decision to withdraw sanction to CBI fearing a seatback for Shivakumar in the appeal also, he said the government would not interfere with the judicial processes.BJP State President BY Vijayendra said the HC had already rejected an appeal by Shivakumar to quash the case even as he called it an act of political revenge. Despite that, Law Minister HK Patil was making a futile attempt to justify his government’s action to nurture corruption, Vijayendra said in a post on social media platform X.