New Delhi: Alleging that the Shimla office of the Enforcement Directorate is a “den of extortionists”, a group of businessmen in Shimla have said that officers of the probe agency, led by Assistant Director Vishal Deep, sought Rs 25 crore as bribe to provide them relief from arrest in an ongoing case.
Addressing a press conference in Shimla Monday, four businessmen—Rajnish Bansal, chairman of Himalayan Group of Professional Institutions, Bhupinder Sharma, chairman of Devbhumi Group of Institutions, Sanjeev Prabhakar, chairman of ICL Group of Colleges, D.K. Singh, chairman of Vidyajyoti Group of Institutions—alleged that they were harassed and tortured, and asked to collect a sum of Rs 25 crore from 29 such institutions, which were under investigation.
Based on the complaints by Bansal, who was allegedly asked to pay Rs 80 lakh as settlement, and Sharma, who was asked to pay Rs 85 lakh, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Sunday filed two criminal cases to probe the role of ED assistant director Vishal, and arrested his brother Akash Deep and their cousin Neeraj on charge of being involved in the bribery racket.
Vishal is on the run, but the agency has recovered Rs 54 lakh out of a Rs 55 lakh bribe paid as part of traps laid by the CBI on Sunday as part of proceedings into two FIRs.
Sources in the ED confirmed to ThePrint that after the higher officials in the agency’s headquarters received information on 24 December, both the absconding assistant director and deputy director were attached to the headquarters. Two days later, the joint director-level officer in Chandigarh, who heads the sub-zonal office in Shimla, was also attached to the headquarters, ThePrint has learnt.
The entire case emanated from an FIR registered by the CBI in 2019 on the request of the then Bharatiya Janata Party-led Himachal Pradesh government to probe misappropriation of post-matric scholarships.
The case was filed against unknown individuals under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of documents and electronic records) and 471 ( using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code. Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 were added after the alleged involvement of officials in the state’s education department came to light.
The agency arrested 19 individuals in total, including Bansal and Sharma, in April 2022. The agency has filed status reports before the Himachal Pradesh High Court and in March this year, announced the conclusion of the investigation, charging 20 institutions and 105 persons, including the complainants of the current case against ED’s assistant director.
It was alleged that there was disbursal of Rs 181 crore in fake and fraudulent claims of scholarship between 2013 and 2017.
Based on the CBI’s FIR, ED had also recorded an Enforcement Complaint Information Report against the suspects, including the four who addressed the press conference Monday.
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‘Den of extortion, gang of dacoits’
Speaking to media persons, Bansal alleged that he was summoned and asked to collect Rs 25 crore from all institutions facing probe and that two subordinates of Vishal—Neeraj and Sunil—tortured him, when he expressed the inability to do so.
He added that he agreed to pay a maximum of Rs 60 lakh. They were also made to sit the whole day by officers so that they could torture and harass them mentally, he further alleged.
Sharma was asked to pay a sum of Rs 85 lakh, while Prabhakar’s requests for empathy, citing brother’s ailment and mother’s death, allegedly “fell on deaf ears”.
“We approached CBI only because they had formed a nexus of extortion in Devbhumi. There was no inquiry at the ED office, only extortion. I suggested Sharma to quickly accept to pay the bribe. He was let off in three hours, while I was tortured for two days,” said Bansal at the press conference.
Sharma said that they did not face any such problem in the past, when they were being probed by Vishal’s predecessor. “The previous assistant director and his senior never bothered us. They torture us in rooms where there are no cameras.”
Prabhakar told media persons that the assistant director tried to misuse his authority and threatened him with arrest if he refused to pay the bribe of Rs 25 crore.
“There was a gang of dacoits, who made the ED office their den of extortion. I am witness to their excesses. I was beaten up. I was crying in the ED office. Neeraj and Sushil threatened me to put me in jail for five years. They sought Rs 1.5 crore from me despite my disclosure that I am running family expenses on loan. If arrests would not have taken place, I would have committed suicide,” he said.
What CBI’s FIRs say
ThePrint has accessed a copy of the two FIRs filed by CBI, one on the complaint of Bansal, who alleged that he had to settle the bribe amount at Rs 60 lakh after coercion by ED officials, including Vishal, who had initially demanded Rs 1.1 crore, and the other on the complaint by Sharma, who was allegedly asked for Rs 85 lakh.
Bansal has alleged in his complaint that the two enforcement officers—Sunil and Neeraj—demanded Rs 20 lakh from him for not arresting him in the ongoing case.
“Thereafter, he was produced before Vishal Deep in his office chamber. During examination, Vishal Deep also demanded Rs.1.10 crore from the complainant and on further negotiation the matter was settled at Rs 60 Lakh. Vishal Deep further directed him that he would call him on Sunday, i.e. 22.12.2024, and he would collect demanded bribe amount of Rs 60 lakh from him in Chandigarh,” the FIR read.
Similarly, in his complaint to CBI on 22 December, Sharma alleged that when he appeared before the ED officers on 16 December, he was asked to pay up Rs 30 lakh by Vishal’s subordinates, while he himself sought Rs 55 lakh on the common assurance of not arresting him.
A CBI inspector, entrusted with verification of the contents of the complaint, recorded a WhatsApp call to Bansal from a private person named Munawar, who claimed to have got his number from Shimla.
Bansal received the call around 11.57 am on 22 December, while Sharma received a call an hour later at 12.57 pm. The CBI inspector documented the possibility of a single person calling both Sharma and Bansal using fake names.
On being asked by Bansal if he had received the phone number from Vishal, the caller first replied affirmatively, before changing his response. He then asked Bansal to meet him around 5 pm. Bansal expressed his inability to do so, saying that his wife was undergoing treatment at Paras Hospital in Panchkula.
“Further, the complainant informed him that the bribe amount of Rs 60 lakh is arranged. The complainant further requested him to collect the bribe amount from the parking of Paras Hospital, Panchkula. Munawar acceded to the request of the complainant,” the FIR noted. “From the said conversation, it was substantiated that one tout Munawar was coming to collect bribe of Rs 60,00,000/- from the complainant Rajnish Bansal on behalf of suspect Vishal Deep, AD.”
On the other hand, when Sharma requested the caller to arrange a call with Vishal, the private person agreed. Sharma was asked to come to Airport road in Chandigarh’s Zirakpur around 4.30-5 pm and that he would call again between 4-4.30 pm to confirm the same, the FIR said.
“From the said conversation, it was substantiated that one middleman Rahim was coming to collect bribe of Rs 55,00,000/- from the complainant Bhupinder Sharma on behalf of suspect Vishal Deep, AD,” the FIR noted.
According to the FIR filed on Sharma’s complaint, a regular case has been registered under Section 7A of PC Act, 1988 against suspect Munawar for demanding a bribe of Rs 60 lakh on behalf of Vishal. The role of Neeraj and Sunil for demanding a bribe of Rs 20 lakh was not confirmed during verification and will be investigated, it further noted.
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ED offices across the nation are a den of extortionists. Pretty much all ED officers are corrupt. This is the primary reason why ED raids and investigations do not lead to court convictions.
ED is just a publicity tool for the Union govt which utilises it effectively to tarnish the reputation of opposition politicians.
None of these accusations ever lead to a conviction in the courts of law.
ED officers openly engage in quid-pro-quo deals and accumulate property worth crores.