New Delhi: With the Enforcement Directorate (ED) having a reputation as an all-powerful agency—making arrests, detaining individuals, and attaching assets, from small businessmen to chief ministers—some officers seem to have misused its name to seek bribes, threaten, and harass people in the last few years.
Two assistant director-level officers are among such officers falling into the net of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Sources in the security establishment told ThePrint that while complaints against ED officers have come to their notice in recent months, the crackdown also appears to be part of an ongoing “clean up” within the agency.
There have been instances when the ED itself has provided information about its own officers, sources said. “We have received complaints against ED officers and we have acted on them as it is the mandate of the CBI to register cases under prevention of corruption act. The corrupt officers misusing ED’s name to target people must be brought to book,” a source in the CBI said.
The ED, according to the CBI source, itself has been very “cooperative”.
“This should not be misconstrued as one agency acting against the other. It is about weeding out the corrupt elements, and the ED also wants to clean up the muck. They have been extremely cooperative. In fact, there have been instances when they themselves have given us information, leads,” the source said.
It is important that these cases are dealt with a heavy hand, a source in ED told ThePrint. “We have a zero-tolerance policy in such matters. If officers are misusing the name.”
On Sunday, former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai slammed searches “without evidence” following the death of Dinesh Nandwana, the 62-year-old founder of Mumbai-based technology company Vakrangee, during an ED raid. In a post on ‘X’, Pai said such searches are “an assault on citizen rights” that needs a relook.
On the other hand, sources in the ED said that searches are carried out in “strict compliance” of Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that gives power to its officer of entering and searching any building or facilities related to person or firm against whom they have “reasons to believe” of involvement in money laundering.
Moreover, officials also emphasize that no officer at the rank of Assistant Director or Deputy Director can begin searches based on their own timeline and instead their proposal is vetted and endorsed by a Joint Director level offcier and further approved by a Special Director Level officer.
“There is a internal circular mandating approval by the top most officer before commencement of searches. The headquarter is made aware of developments every two hours during searches and a comprehensive update on 48 hours of searches,” an ED official said.
“The search proceedings begin only after an officer, at least led by an assistant director-level officer, gives in writing reasons to believe to persons whose premise or facilities are searched. Searches take place in strict compliance with Section 17 of the PMLA,” another ED officer said.
“In this particular case, the search was conducted based on development in an ongoing investigation and it was ED officers themselves who informed local police about the unfortunate incident.”
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The cases
In the last six months, at least three such cases have come to fore wherein ED officers have been arrested on the charge of corruption, and raids have been carried out at the offices of the economic intelligence agency.
The CBI booked an assistant director-level officer of ED earlier posted at the Shimla sub- zonal office on charge of corruption in December 2024. He was taken into custody for allegedly seeking Rs 1.15 crore as bribe from two accused in the Himachal Pradesh scholarship scam, that he was probing, to “settle the case”. The CBI had raided the ED’s office in connection with the probe.
In August, another assistant director-level officer was arrested on the charge of corruption after a bribe was allegedly sought from a Mumbai-based businessman, threatening to implicate and arrest his son in a fake money laundering case.
The officer, Sandeep Singh Yadav, who was on deputation from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), was allegedly caught red-handed accepting a Rs 20 lakh bribe in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.
In August 2023, the ED filed a complaint with the CBI against its own officer, Pawan Khatri, and others, alleging that they accepted a bribe of Rs 5 crore from a businessman under investigation in the alleged Delhi excise scam.
Even, state agencies are taking action in specific instances. In November 2023, Rajasthan’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested ED officer Naval Kishore Meena after allegedly catching a middleman working on his behalf red-handed.
Similarly, the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption arrested ED officer Ankit Tiwari in December 2023, after he was caught allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a government employee in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul.
‘Doing our job’
A second source in the CBI told ThePrint that it is not just the ED, but the agency also takes action against its own officers and has, in the past, arrested individuals from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and local police as well.
“We follow a zero-tolerance policy. If a person is found to be involved in corruption within the CBI, if they are on deputation, they are immediately repatriated, and if they are from the CBI, they are dismissed from service,” the source said. “In the last year, we have taken action against at least eight officers.”
Many complaints are coming out against ED officers, the source acknowledged. “It is true that there has been a slight increase in complaints or inputs regarding ED officers misusing their power for bribes, and the ED acknowledges that a cleanup is needed.”
Cases are registered whenever the CBI receives a specific lead or a complaint about a bribe, according to the source.
The ED, according to the CBI insider, is notified when there are allegations of harassment or accusations of its officers threatening to implicate targets in a case.
“It’s left to them to either take departmental action or refer it to us if a case needs to be registered,” the source said. “The two agencies work in close coordination to ensure that the system is as corruption-free as possible.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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The ED is itself neck deep in corruption. How is it supposed to investigate and prosecute the corrupt?
Most, if not all, ED officers are corrupt and willing to botch up investigations in exchange for “gifts” of all kinds.
The root cause of the issue is that the ED is not accountable to anyone. It does whatever it feels like.
The ED has always been an utterly corrupt organisation. Most officials working with ED engage in all sorts of unethical practices and end up making fortunes. The fact that the ED is practically accountable to none adds to their brazenness. They think of themselves as the Lords of everything they lay eyes on.
The free reins given by the Modi government to the ED to selectively hound and harass it’s political opponents, has made it a den of corruption and unscrupulous activities.
In the cases of of corruption, it is only the tip of the iceberg that comes above the surface. The bigger chunk remans under the surface and never comes to light. Blame it on Modi’s misuse of ED for such a situation.