The arrest of senior Congress leader and former deputy chief minister of Karnataka D K Shivakumar on Tuesday evening by the Enforcement Directorate people created ripples in the political circles.
Shivakumar, known to be a trouble-shooter in the Congress politics, was being investigated in a case of alleged money laundering.
The Enforcement Directorate, which had been questioning him over the last four days arrested him finally on the pretext that he was not cooperating with the investigation and needed to be questioned while in custody.
The arrest evoked mixed response in the political circles.
While the pro-Bharatiya Janata Party groups hailed his arrest stating that he had to face the law for his corrupt practices, others accused the BJP of indulging in politics of vendetta against its political rivals.
“Those who had links with the BJP were allowed to go scot free, its political opponents like P Chidambaram and Shivakumar are being harassed by the investigation agencies,” an analyst observed.
Senior journalist and popular television anchor Rajdeep Sardesai pointed out the selective targeting of the political opponents by the BJP government.
He cited the example of former Union minister and former TDP leader Sujana Chowdary who had faced continuous raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate before the elections.
But soon after he joined the BJP along with other TDP leaders, the investigation agencies have become silent, he pointed out.
Here is the tweet of Rajdeep Sardesai:
“DK Shivakumar arrested: good! But would love to know what happened to another high profile Neta, TDP’s union minister YS Chowdhary, raided and summoned by CBI, ED and IT during elections. The moment he joined BJP, case seems to have gone into cold storage! Yeh hai ‘new’ India!”
Any comment from the government?