Karnataka CM-designate D K Shivakumar gets 2-year foreign travel relief in 2018 income tax case

While Shivakumar has been granted permission on four occasions since 2021 for short-duration foreign travel up to one year, a special court hearing cases against elected representatives granted the Congress leader an extended exemption of two years for foreign travel on May 15.

Shivakumar’s counsel told the special court that it would not be feasible for the Congress leader, who is currently the state’s deputy CM, to frequently approach the court for permissions to travel abroad.

Although the I-T department objected to granting permission for foreign travel over a long period, it agreed to impose conditions on Shivakumar. The special court ruled in favour of the Congress leader’s request for permission to travel abroad for two years.

“Upon considering the status of accused No.1 both in his personal capacity and official capacity, this court is of the opinion that the submission made by the counsel for the accused appear to be correct and bonafide in the interest of the accused representing the state and also interest of this court,” the special court said in its order.

“The accused No.1 is permitted to travel abroad to the USA, European Countries, U.K, Australia, Russia and Arab Nations over a period of two years from today…” the court said, adding that Shivakumar must inform the I-T department in advance before taking up foreign visits and that he should appear in court when required for the trial of the case.

The I-T department’s income tax evasion case from 2017 against Shivakumar and four alleged associates lies at the root of a money laundering case taken up by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in 2018 and a corruption case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2020 against him.

The 2018 income tax case also lies indirectly at the root of the Congress strongman’s ascendancy to his current position as the chief minister designate of Karnataka.

The ED case against Shivakumar, for which he was arrested in September 2019 and imprisoned for nearly a month, has abated on account of the Supreme Court ruling on November 29, 2023, in the Pavana Dibbur case regarding the necessity for predicate cases to be a part of scheduled offences to attract the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The income tax evasion case against Shivakumar does not fall within the category of scheduled offences under the PMLA, the Supreme Court ruled on March 5, 2024, while quashing the ED’s money laundering proceedings against him.

The 2020 CBI corruption case against Shivakumar received a setback in 2023, when the Congress government came to power and the state Cabinet, headed by Siddaramaiah, withdrew the consent granted by the state government during the tenure for a corruption investigation against Shivakumar.

The withdrawal of consent was upheld by a division bench of the Karnataka High Court on August 29, 2024, and a CBI challenge of the order on the state consent has been pending in the Supreme Court since September 22, 2025.

The central agency has alleged that Shivakumar amassed Rs 74.93 crore of wealth disproportionate to known sources of income from April 2013 to April 2018, when he was the energy minister in a previous Congress government in the state.

Shivakumar has previously referred to the interlinked I-T department, ED, and CBI cases as “harassment” by the BJP government at the Centre. He stated that these cases were “impeding my ability to fulfil my constitutional and political duties.”

Origin of I-T case against Shivakumar

The ongoing case against Shivakumar has its origins in I-T searches conducted between August 2, 2017, and August 5, 2017, at some 70 premises linked to him when he was the energy minister in the Congress government in Karnataka.

The I-T searches were carried out even as Shivakumar was protecting a flock of 42 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at the Eagleton resort near Bengaluru in an attempt to help a senior Gujarat Congress leader, the late Ahmed Patel, win the Rajya Sabha polls that were scheduled on August 8, 2017, amid alleged poaching attempts by the BJP.

Based on the searches in 2017, the I-T department filed a complaint of tax evasion and false evidence against Shivakumar in 2018, and specifically the finding of Rs 8.59 crore in cash at four Delhi properties linked to his alleged associates.

Based on the I-T department’s 2017 investigation into Shivakumar’s income and assets, the ED filed a money laundering case against the Congress leader.

The agency filed a prosecution complaint against Shivakumar on May 26, 2022, alleging that he, as a Congress minister in Karnataka, generated a huge amount of illegal wealth and that it was hidden through a “criminal conspiracy” with associates.

The unaccounted cash of Rs 8.59 crore, found at various properties in New Delhi belonging to Shivakumar’s associates in 2017, was allegedly linked to a money laundering conspiracy. Two accused told the agency that the Rs 6.6 crore seized from a flat was brought on the orders of Shivakumar.

It was alleged that the flat where the money was found was being used by Shivakumar and his associate, Sunil Sharma, to store cash. The agency questioned former Congress functionary V Mulgund, a close associate of Shivakumar, regarding transactions amounting to Rs 5 crore in the alleged income tax evasion and money laundering case.

Shivakumar has claimed in the past that he had been pressured to switch his political allegiance from the Congress to the BJP or face imprisonment during the height of the investigations by central agencies against him.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi visited Shivakumar in prison in 2019 to show support. Shivakumar was incidentally appointed as the Karnataka Congress president on March 11, 2020, shortly after his prison ordeal in the ED case in 2019.

Apart from Shivakumar, his alleged associate Sachin Narayan, Sunil Sharma, Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah, and Rajendra N are also accused in the ongoing I-T case. While the case was taken up in the special court in November 2021, the trial has lagged due to several of the accused obtaining stay orders from the High Court and the Supreme Court.

The special court, however, commenced the trial proceedings on September 4, 2025, by initiating the process of evidence before charge against Shivakumar, Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah and Rajendra after the I-T department argued that there was no stay by the higher courts on the trial proceedings against them.

Four I-T officials, including T Sunil Gautam, the main investigating officer in the tax evasion case against Shivakumar, have so far provided their evidence in the case.

Previous court clearances for foreign travel

Before the May 15 order granting Shivakumar a two-year allowance for foreign travel without court clearances, the special court in Bengaluru had granted the Karnataka Congress leader a month’s permission to travel to Dubai in April-March 2022 and November-December 2023, and a year’s permission in August 2024 to travel to multiple foreign countries.

He also travelled to Davos for the World Economic Forum in January 2026, with the necessary legal clearances.

The Karnataka Congress chief declared assets to the tune of Rs 1,214 crore for the 2023 Assembly polls, a 44 per cent increase on his assets from 2018, when he had declared Rs 840 crore. In the period between 2013 and 2018, when he was the Congress energy minister, Shivakumar reported a massive Rs 589 crore rise in his wealth (a growth of over 250 per cent).

The Congress leader has often claimed that his wealth has accrued from land holdings and businesses, including real estate, education and mining.

The majority of the Rs 1,214 crore of wealth declared by Shivakumar for the 2023 polls accrued from the ownership of a mall in west Bengaluru. The mall is on a property for which a deal was signed when he was a Congress minister. The property’s value at the time of purchase was estimated at Rs 117 crore, and its 2023 market value was Rs 852 crore.