New Delhi: A Deputy Director-rank officer of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will soon be arrested for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 5 crore from an accused in a case he was investigating in exchange for not arresting him, not attaching his hospital and settling the case, ThePrint has learnt.
The demand for bribe was further negotiated for Rs 2 crore, and an advance of Rs 50 lakh was sought by the officer immediately, it is learnt.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case of corruption in the matter and confirmed the involvement of the officer.
“He has been questioned and the process to arrest him, which involves paperwork, is currently on,” a CBI source confirmed.
According to the FIR registered by CBI, seen by ThePrint, a written complaint was received from an Odisha businessman named Ratikanta Sout on 28 May, alleging that officer Chintan Raghuvanshi asked for a bribe to settle the case against him but he does not have the means to pay that amount.
“He alleged that the officer demanded a bribe of Rs 5 crore, which was negotiated to Rs 2 crore, through a private person named Bhagti, who was closing the deal for him. It was then decided that the first instalment of Rs 50 lakh will be paid on 28 May in exchange for not attaching his hospital, for not arresting him and further to settle the ED case registered in 2020 against the complainant,” a source explained.
“We received a complaint from the businessman and we, along with the Anti Corruption Bureau of the state, looked into the allegation and found them to be true. After the involvement of the officer was confirmed, action was taken,” the source added.
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‘A FaceTime call’
According to the FIR, the complainant, who runs a business involving stone mines and stone crushers in Odisha, received summons from the ED in 2024, alleging his involvement in a money laundering case.
He stated that he attended proceedings at the ED’s state office, where he learned that a case had been registered against him. On 8 January this year, searches were conducted at his office and residence in Bhubaneswar, and he received another summons for March 2025.
On the same day, ED officer Raghuvanshi allegedly called him into his chamber and asked him to contact a private individual named Bhagti, claiming he could help him “get relief from the ED case”.
“The businessman alleged that he met Bhagti on 26 May his (Sout’s) guest house, where he informed him that a bribe of Rs 5 crore would need to be paid to the officer to settle the matter,” the source said.
According to the FIR, when the businessman told Bhagti that he could not afford to pay such a large amount, he connected him to Raghuvanshi via a FaceTime call and put him on speaker. During that call, the bribe amount was allegedly negotiated down to Rs 2 crore.
“I said I couldn’t pay that much, so Bhagti called Raghuvanshi and put him on speaker. At my request, he agreed to reduce the amount to Rs 2 crore and instructed me to pay Rs 50 lakh as the first instalment on the same day,” the FIR quotes the complainant as saying.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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