Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh, who is the brother of former Minister DK Shivakumar, on Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the money laundering case.

The questioning comes as Shivakumar remains in jail for a month after being arrested by the central probe agency on September 3 in connection with the same case against him.

Sources said that Suresh would be questioned on the alleged hawala transactions to the Congress high command and also about the meteoric rise of his personal wealth.

In his election affidavit before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Suresh had declared that his assets have grown close to four times in the last five years. While his assets were valued at over Rs 85 crore in 2014, his affidavit for the upcoming elections states that his wealth is now approximately Rs 338 crore.

Read: With assets worth Rs 338 crore, DK Suresh’s wealth quadrupled in 5 yrs

Meanwhile, the special court which denied Shivakumar bail on October 1, has granted the Enforcement Directorate permission to interrogate him across Thursday and Friday.

He had been in ED’s custody for two weeks initially and on September 17, he was remanded to judicial custody.

Shivakumar has been on the radar of the Income Tax Department and the ED since demonetisation in 2016. An Income Tax search at his New Delhi flat on August 2, 2017, led to the seizure of unaccounted cash worth Rs 8.83 crore.

Thereafter, the I-T Department lodged cases against the Congress leader and his four associates under Sections 277 and 278 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and Sections 120(B) ( criminal conspiracy), 193 (Punishment for false evidence) and 199 (False statement made in declaration which is by law receivable as evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The ED has also questioned DK Shivakumar’s daughter Aisshwarya and Belagavi Rural MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar in connection with the case.

Incidentally, according to Shivakumar’s affidavit submitted to the Election Commission ahead of the Assembly elections in 2018, his daughter Aisshwarya owned assets of Rs 108 crore compared to only Rs 1.09 crore in 2013.

Shivakumar, however, clarified that Aisshwarya was not dependent on his income and that he was still declaring her assets as per the Representation of Peoples Act.