CBI arrests ED assistant director for demanding Rs 20 lakh bribe

The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has arrested an assistant director of the ED (Enforcement Directorate) for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a Mumbai-based bullion dealer by threatening to arrest his son in a money laundering case, officials said on Thursday.

Action has also been initiated to place the officer, who was arrested in New Delhi on Wednesday, under immediate suspension and for his repatriation to his parent department, according to the officials.

The ED had conducted searches at the premises of Vipul Thakkar, who runs a bullion company called V.S. Gold, on 4 August in connection with the money laundering case. The ED action was part of an operation against certain entities based on multiple FIRs registered by Delhi, Uttarakhand and Bengaluru police, the officials said.

ED assistant director Sandeep Singh, who was acting as 'search warrant authorised officer', had searched the residence of Thakkar, whose company was suspected of being involved in money laundering, they said.

According to ED sources, Singh was not the investigating officer of the case and his service was requisitioned for the limited purpose of conducting the search.

Singh allegedly presented himself as the investigating officer in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case and demanded a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from Thakkar for not arresting his son Nihar in the case, even though he was in no way connected to it, the officials said. It also emerged that the search was uneventful and conducted as per due procedure, they said.

Thakkar approached CBI with his complaint, and the agency found the allegations prima facie correct during its verification exercise, they said.

"The verification of the complaint in the presence of independent witnesses, prima facie revealed criminal conspiracy hatched by Sandeep Singh, Assistant Director, Enforcement Directorate HQ, New Delhi with unknown others to obtain undue advantage from complainant of Rs 20 lakh by himself and through other person from the complainant Vipul Thakkar for not arresting his son Nihar Thakkar in the matter being investigated by the ED," the CBI FIR said.

Acting on Thakkar's complaint, the Mumbai unit of the CBI arrested Singh while he was allegedly accepting the bribe money, the officials said.

Thakkar had filed the complaint against Singh and another ED officer Alok Kumar Pankaj, both posted in Investigation Unit-1 of the agency, they said. Following the CBI action, the ED also registered a PMLA case against Singh. The two agencies conducted a joint search at his office on Thursday to collect evidence related to their respective cases.

"In addition to the PMLA case, action has also been initiated to place him under immediate suspension and for his repatriation to his parent department from the ED," an official said.