Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma and DK Suresh at Tihar jail to meet DK Shivakumar

Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma and DK Suresh arrived at Tihar jail to meet Congress leader DK Shivakumar. He is currently lodged in the Jail under judicial custody of the Enforcement Directorate.

The Enforcement Directorate arrested Congress's troubleshooter from Karnataka, Shivakumar, in connection with a money laundering case following repeated questioning in the last week.

The alleged money laundering came to light after raids by the tax sleuths on Shivakumar's flat in New Delhi on August 2, 2017 led to seizure of unaccounted cash worth ₹ 8.59 crore without evidence of its source of income.

Cases were filed against him and four others associated with him under Sections 277 and 278 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Sections 120(B), 193 and 199 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"The judge also observed that it was for the law enforcing agencies like the ED and I-T Department to ascertain if the offence was in violation of the PMLA and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988," an ED official said.

"The I-T raid on me was politically motivated for hosting then Gujarat Congress MLAs (at a private resort on Bengaluru outskirts in July-August 2017). As a loyal soldier of (the) Congress and a responsible politician, I did what (the) party asked me to do (and) for which I have been targeted," said Shivakumar, considered to be the party's trouble-shooter.