Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday met Karnataka leader DK Shivakumar at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, PTI reported. She was accompanied by party General Secretary KC Venugopal and party leader Ambika Soni.

Kumar is in judicial custody for the last 50 days since his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate
on September 3 in connection with a money laundering case. The Delhi High Court will give its verdict on the Congress leader’s bail plea later in the day.

Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh was also present during the meeting of the Congress leaders. He said Gandhi told Shivakumar that the party was with him, ANI reported. “This is a political case and other such leaders are also being targeted,” Suresh said. “We have to overcome this.”

“The visits are a message to the cadre that the party stands firmly with leaders who have been jailed in such cases,” an unidentified senior Congress leader told the Hindustan Times.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy met Shivakumar at the jail on Monday. He alleged Shivakumar was a target of political revenge.

Last month, Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had met party veteran P Chidambaram at Tihar Jail. He was jailed in connection with money laundering cases related to INX Media.

The Congress has maintained that both the leaders have been targeted by the agencies as a part of witch-hunt by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government.

In 2018, a money laundering case was registered against Shivakumar on the basis of an Enforcement Case Information Report after a complaint was filed by the Income Tax department. The Congress leader is accused of evading tax and being involved in alleged hawala transactions worth crores of rupees.

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