DK Shivakumar met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on Thursday.
Congress leader DK Shivakumar met interim party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, a day after he was released from Tihar jail after being granted bail by the Delhi High Court in a money laundering case.
"It was not a political meeting. I met Sonia Gandhi to thank her for coming all the way to Tihar jail to meet me," he said, appealing to his party colleagues to remain loyal to its ideology even in trying times.
DK Suresh, Congress parliamentarian and Mr Shivakumar's brother, was also present at the meeting.
Mrs Gandhi and Congress parliamentarian Ambika Soni had met Mr Shivakumar - who has gained repute as a trouble-shooter for the party in Karnataka - in prison on Wednesday morning. She reportedly assured the 57-year-old leader that the party would do everything possible to help him overturn the "false case" foisted on him by the government.
Earlier today, Mr Shivakumar met party general secretary KC Venugopal at the Congress office and discussed the circumstances under which he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3. "I just got to know that my wife has been summoned too... but I don't want to discuss politics. Let me just say that I'm very grateful to the party workers who stood by us," he said.
The Enforcement Directorate had told the Delhi High Court on Monday that it would issue fresh summons to Mr Shivakumar's wife and mother because the investigation into the money laundering case against him was still on. His 23-year-old daughter, Aisshwarya, was also questioned by the Enforcement Directorate days after his arrest. Investigators said they wanted to know how her net worth grew from around Rs 1 crore in 2013 to over Rs 100 crore in 2018, and whether the financial transactions between her and Mr Shivakumar involved unaccounted money.
The Karnataka Congress leader, who was arrested last month on charges of tax evasion and indulging in hawala transactions amounting to crores of rupees, was granted bail by the Delhi High Court on a bond of Rs 25 lakh plus two sureties. However, he was asked to not influence witnesses or leave the country without the court's permission.
(With inputs from PTI)