Karnataka High Court rejects Deputy CM Shivakumar's plea in CBI disproportionate assets case

The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday rejected the petition by Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress chief D K Shivakumar challenging the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) FIR against him in the disproportionate assets case. The HC also directed the CBI to conclude the investigation and file the report within three months.

Justice K Natarajan, who concluded the hearing and reserved the judgment earlier, announced the verdict on Thursday. He reasoned that since the CBI has concluded most of the investigation, the court would not interfere in it at this juncture. The CBI is at the stage of filing a charge sheet after completing gathering statements from the accused. While the operative portion of the judgment rejecting Shivakumar's petition was dictated, the complete judgment copy is awaited.

The CBI has alleged that Shivakumar amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2013 and 2018. He was a minister in the previous Congress government during this period. The FIR was filed by the CBI on September 3, 2020. Shivakumar challenged the FIR in the high court in 2021.