Karnataka Water Resources and Medical Education Minister D K Shivakumar has dismissed claims made by the Income Tax (I-T) department that he allegedly operated a “hawala” network.

“I have neither given any money to Congress party nor used 'hawala network',” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Friday. “I have not done anything wrong. You know what politics and pressure tactics are going on.”

On Thursday, in a complained filed at the Special Court for Economic Offences, the I-T department had claimed that Shivakumar had paid unaccounted cash payments to the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The payments were made to the AICC by V Mulgund, the department said, according to news agency PTI.

"Rs 3 crore were personally delivered by Mulgund to AICC office on January 1, 2017,” the I-T department said in its complaint, adding that on January 9, another Rs 2 crore was delivered. The unaccounted payments were made on the “direction of Shivakumar and Sunil Kumar Sharma, another accused”, according to the complaint.

The other accused include Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah; Sachin Narayan, an alleged business partner of Shivakumar; and N Rajendra, the complaint says.

Sharma, the proprietor of Sharma Transports, runs a fleet of buses; Haumanthaiah, an employee at New Delhi’s Karnataka Bhavan, is allegedly in charge of storing and handling Shivakumar’s unaccounted cash in Delhi, the I-T department has claimed.

Rajendra, a caretaker at Karnataka Bhavan, works for  Sharma, and looks after the immovable properties of Sharma and Shivakumar, the I-T department said, as quoted by PTI.

Shivakumar told reporters that he had no connection with the money found with Hanumanthaiah. "All these developments have shocked me,” he said. “I have faith in courts and judiciary.”