Supreme Court declines to lift stay on CBI probe against DK Shivakumar, asks Karnataka High Court to decide

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to lift the interim stay on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar in connection with a corruption case. [Central Bureau of Investigation vs DK Shivakumar and ors]..A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma stated it was not inclined to lift the stay since it was an interim direction. The Court also noted that a plea has already been filed by the central agency to vacate the stay before the Karnataka High Court. The apex court, therefore, directed the High Court to decide on this plea expeditiously, preferably within two weeks."The impugned order being interim in nature, we are not inclined to interfere with the same, more, particularly when the petitioner - CBI has already filed an application for vacation of the stay granted in the impugned order passed by the High Court, before the High Court," the bench stated..In June as well, the Supreme Court had refused to lift the High Court's stay on the CBI probe for similar reasons. Last month, it sought the response of Shivakumar in the matter..The top court was hearing a plea by the CBI against a Karnataka High Court order that had directed an interim stay on the central agency's probe against the Congress leader in connection with a corruption case. The case concerns irregularities in mining and real estate activities. .The corruption case against Shivakumar was filed after a search was carried out by the Income Tax Department in 2017.During the search, which was conducted at various locations including Delhi, ₹8.59 crores was found. Out of that, ₹41 lakh rupees was found at a place belonging to Shivakumar. Subsequently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a case against Shivakumar under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Shivakumar was arrested in connection with the case on September 3, 2019.However, he was later released on bail following an order from the Delhi High Court, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court.Meanwhile, on September 9 that year, relying on the ED's letter, the then Bharatiya Janata Party-led State government allowed the CBI to conduct an investigation into the matter as well..On April 20, 2023, a plea was filed by Shivakumar to quash the State Home Department's order in the case, which was dismissed by Justice R Natarajan of the Karnataka High Court. The Congress leader then moved a division bench of the High Court in appeal, which granted him interim relief by staying the CBI investigation until his challenge is decided by the Court.The High Court's June 2023 order of interim stay on the CBI probe against Shivakumar was then challenged before the Supreme Court by the central agency..Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the CBI. Senior Advocates Devadatt Kamat and Vipin Sanghi appeared for DK Shivakumar before the Supreme Court..[Read order]