DK Shivakumar had approached the high court to cancel CBI probe against him
The Congress-ruled Karnataka government has approved a proposal to withdraw a case being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into alleged disproportionate assets owned by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, sources have said.
The proposal by the home department was placed before the state cabinet to hand over the investigation to the state police or the anti-corruption authority Lokayukta, they said.
The state government will look at approaching the court, now that the proposal has been cleared by the cabinet.
The previous BJP government had handed over the case to the CBI.
Karnataka Advocate General K Shashi Kiran Shetty put together the proposal to withdraw the case against Mr Shivakumar.
Mr Shivakumar then requested the Karnataka High Court to cancel the order by the Yeddyurappa government; however, the court dismissed the request in April this year.
The court had, however, said it won't interfere in the matter as the CBI is almost complete with its investigation. It gave the CBI three months - till mid-January - to give a report.
Based on the income tax department's search operations in Mr Shivakumar's home and offices in 2017, the Enforcement Directorate had started its own probe against him.
After this, the CBI sought sanction from the state government to file a first information report (FIR), which the Yeddyurappa government allowed in September 2019.
The CBI filed the FIR against Mr Shivakumar in October 2020.