D.K. Shivakumar, Congress legislator from Kanakapura, had not anticipated his arrest on Monday morning when he met several Congress workers and leaders before heading towards Lok Nayak Bhavan for questioning by Enforcement Directorate.
For nearly an hour, he had met a large contingent from Mandya, Ramanagaram and Bengaluru at Karnataka Bhavan and had exuded confidence that authorities would not move to arrest him. Neither did he anticipate his arrest by authorities late in the night after over eight hours of questioning nor did Congress leaders who had met him.
“Mr. Shivakumar told us that he was confident of sailing through since he had not done anything wrong,” Congress leader Muralidhar Halappa told The Hindu over phone from New Delhi. In fact, Mr. Shivakumar, having seen so many Congress workers and followers, had asked them not to come to Delhi by spending money on travel, said Mr. Halappa, who was among those to meet him in the morning. “Mr. Shivakumar pointed out the case of TMC leaders Mukul Roy that went slow after he joined the BJP,” he said. Former Ministers H.K. Patil, Shivashankar Reddy, MLC C.M. Lingappa, and former MP LR. Shivarame Gowda were present in New Delhi.
For nearly two years, Mr. Shivakumar maintained that the BJP had been using central agencies to pressurise him to quit the Congress in exchange for a favourable investigation.
He had also expressed apprehension in the past that he might be arrested as part of political vendetta.
Consultation
On Tuesday, before heading for questioning, Mr. Shivakumar had consulted former Vice-President of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal R.P. Tolani about the case and sought his advice. Incidentally, Mr. Shivakumar, who appeared emotionally troubled on Monday, had shed tears at not being able to perform annual rituals connected to his father that the family observes on Ganesh Chaturthi.
Meanwhile, as Mr. Shivakumar was being questioned inside, Congress workers waited with bated breath outside Lok Nayak Bhavan. Among those who waited anxiously was his brother and Kanakapura MP D.K. Suresh.
According to Mr. Halappa, several Congress workers from Maharashtra, Telangana and Gujarat had arrived at Lok Nayak Bhavan to show solidarity.
When he was being ushered into a car to be taken for medical check up, Mr. Shivakumar told the waiting media that he would face the challenge. “I am not a coward. I will face this. This is political vendetta,” he said.
