Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s anti-corruption agency arrested an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer Friday for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh.
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) was alerted by a government official from Dindigul that the ED officer, Ankit Tiwari, was allegedly pressuring him to pay up in exchange for dropping charges against him.
DVAC personnel intercepted Tiwari’s car on the Dindigul-Madurai highway Friday and found the bribe money in the vehicle, a senior police officer said.
The officer added that Tiwari and his team had allegedly demanded bribes from several individuals to close their ED-related cases.
The DVAC is also likely to conduct raids in the ED’s Madurai sub-zonal office, where Tiwari was posted.
Tiwari’s LinkedIn profile describes him as an enforcement officer who began working for the central agency in May 2018 from Nagpur.
The DVAC in a statement issued on the late hours of 1 December stated that the arrested ED officer on 29 October had contacted a government employee from Dindigul and mentioned about a case registered against him in Dindigul Vigilance & Anti-Corruption Department, which had already been disposed off.
The statement added that the accused informed the employee that instructions had been received from the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an enquiry in the case and asked the government employee to appear before the Enforcement Directorate office in Madurai on
30 October.
However, when the government employee went there, the accused took his car and demanded that he should pay Rs.3 crore to avert legal action in the case, the statement alleged. It further said the accused claimed he spoken to his superiors and agreed to collect Rs.51 lakh as bribe. On 01 November, the employee allegedly paid the accused Rs 20 lakh as a first instalment.
The DVAC statement added that the accused intimidated the employee on several occasions through WhatsApp calls and text messages for more money.
Finally, the government employee registered a complaint at the Dindigul district Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Unit on 30 November.
Ankit Tiwari’s ED identity card obtained by DVAC officials | Photo: special arrangement
‘ED acting like BJP henchman’
The ED officer’s arrest comes at a time when several members of the ruling DMK are on the agency’s radar. In June this year, former excise minister V. Senthil Balaji was arrested by the ED in an alleged cash-for-jobs scam.
The following month, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudi and his MP son Gautham Sigamani faced ED raids in a money-laundering case linked to alleged illegal sand mining.
The ED’s summons to five state district collectors in alleged illegal sand mining and money-laundering cases were stayed by the Madras High Court this week, on the grounds that the action was “not within the jurisdiction of ED”.
The DMK government has said in court that the ED was acting on behalf of the ruling BJP at the Centre. The party said only non-BJP states faced such problems, which was “violative of federal principles”.
After the high court stay, DMK Rajya Sabha MP N.R. Elango told reporters that the ED — “acting like a henchman of the BJP regime” — was trying to defame the Tamil Nadu government.
On 2 November, the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested two ED officers for allegedly taking Rs 15 lakh in bribes. In August, another ED official was arrested in Delhi by the CBI for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 5 crore from a businessman accused in the Delhi excise policy case.
(This is ab updated version of the report.)
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: ED arrests former J&K Co-operative Bank chairman in Rs 250-crore money laundering case