Tamil Nadu Police Detains ED Officer For Receiving Bribe

According to the upcoming reports, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer was taken into custody by the Tamil Nadu state police on Thursday. The detained officer was charged for allegedly taking bribes of around 20 lakhs from a private person in Dindigul.

The accused was identified as Ankit Tiwari, an enforcement officer. He is part of the domestic law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency who are responsible for enforcing economic laws and working against the economic crimes in India.

It was earlier in November the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ABC) arrested an ED officer and his associate for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 15 lakh for settling a matter to a chit fund case. The officer then detained was identified Naval Kishore Meena and was posted in Manipur’s Imphal. The arrest was following a complaint produced with the agency stating Mr Meena demanded Rs 17 lakh bribe for not attaching the complainant’s property and not arresting him in a chit fund scam.

Following the investigation led by a team directed by Dr Ravi, Deputy Inspector General of ACB in Jaipur, they have nabbed Mr Meena and his associate Babulal Meena from Jaipur, while the two were accepting bribe of Rs 15 lakh.

According to the officials, the two were on a private visit to their native place in Jaipur after taking leave from the office. A case was lodged under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the directorate later informed that they had suspended Naval Kishore Meena. ACB produced a statement and said that, “Naval Kishore Meena, EO, Imphal Sub-Zonal Office, Manipur and Babulal Meena alias Dinesh, Junior Assistant, Office of Deputy Registrar, Government of Rajasthan have been arrested by ACB, Jaipur. In this connection, ED has placed Naval Kishore under suspension and a PMLA case has been initiated against Naval Kishore Meena and Babulal Meena”.

The probe agency was facing serious allegations these days as the ruling political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was misusing the central agencies against the opposition parties and its leaders amidst the State Legislative Assembly Elections 2023. It was recently the senior Congress leader and MP P Chidambaram took to the matter to his official X (formerly Twitter) and cited the example of Telangana, where Mr Chidambaram said at least four candidates of his party were summoned or their premises searched where they were midst of poll campaigns.

(Awaiting further reports)