In a big relief for Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, the High Court on Thursday dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation's plea to continue the probe against the leader in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.
The Karnataka HC held the CBI's plea challenging the Congress government's decision to withdraw consent to it for investigating the DA case against Shivakumar as "non-maintainable".
A division bench of Justices K Somashekar and Umesh M Adiga also dismissed the petition challenging the state government's order dated December 26, 2023 and referred the Rs 74.93 crore DA case to the Lokayukta for investigation.
The High Court, in a 67-page long judgment, said that the issues raised in the petition should be addressed by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, DK Shivakumar had said that he would accept whatever verdict is given by the apex court as "God's decision".
"I believe in courts...and I believe in God. I will accept the court's decision as God's," he told reporters on Thursday morning in the Sakleshpur area.
The division bench had reserved its judgment on the matter on August 12.
The central probe agency had earlier alleged that Shivakumar accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2013 and 2018, a period during which he was a minister in the previous Congress government.
The current Karnataka cabinet headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, however, on November 23, 2023, held that the former BJP-led government's move to given consent to the investigation against Shivakumar was not in accordance with law. Hence, the Congress government decided to withdraw the consent to further continue the probe in the DA case.
