New Delhi: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday morning met Karnataka Congress leader D K Shivakumar in Tihar jail and assured him of all support from the party.
Shivakumar (57) was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on September 3 in a money laundering case. He is lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody. His bail plea is pending with the court and the ED probe is underway.
Gandhi was accompanied by Congress general secretary Ambika Soni and Congress MP D K Suresh, who is also the brother of Shivakumar.
On Monday, former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy also met Shivakumar in Tihar Jail.
Talking to reporters here, Suresh said the Congress president assured Shivakumar that the party is with him and will stand in his support.
"Gandhi told Shivakumar that this is a case of political vendetta and other Congress leaders are also being targeted like this by the BJP government at the Centre," he said.
"We have to fight them and come out of this," Suresh said, quoting the Congress president.
Shivakumar, a seven-time MLA in Karnataka, was booked along with Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi and others for alleged offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The case was based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax Department against them last year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and ''hawala'' transactions worth crores of rupees. The I-T department, during the initial probe, had allegedly found unaccounted and misreported wealth linked to Shivakumar.
A Congress strongman in Karnataka, Shivakumar was a main instrumental in smooth running of the JD-S and Congress coalition government.
Last month, Sonia Gandhi along with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram when he was lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the INX Media case. Chidambaram has been granted bail by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Read:| Congress to hold protest against government in November
