ED Assistant Director Lands in CBI Net, Third Officer from Agency Caught Taking Bribes since November

In one more instance of Enforcement Directorate representatives falling in the crosshairs of another agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested an ED officer in Delhi. ED assistant director Sandeep Singh Yadav was arrested by the CBI in a bribery case on Thursday. “The officer posted in Delhi was arrested while accepting a bribe of 20 lakh rupees,” a CBI representative confirmed to News18.

This is the third instance, in recent times, of an ED officer being taken into custody by a sister agency. Earlier the Tamil Nadu directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) had booked ED officer Ankit Tiwari in an alleged case of bribery. Tiwari, posted in the Madurai sub-zonal office of ED, was allegedly caught in December last year while receiving Rs 20 lakh as a kickback. The agency accused the officer of asking for a bribe amount of Rs 51 lakh in total.

In November 2023, Rajasthan’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB) arrested ED officer Naval Kishore Meena after allegedly catching, red-handed, a middleman who worked for him. Meena, posted in Imphal, was probing a chit fund case against a businessman in Manipur. The ACB accused him of threatening the complainant to pay Rs 15 lakh as a bribe or get implicated in the case. ACB Rajasthan said Meena had told the victim “to pay up to avoid seizure of his properties and arrest”.

Sandeep Yadav too stands accused of blackmailing a businessman. CBI sources said that he was threatening to implicate the victim from Mumbai in an ED case.

“A trap was laid in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market by the anti-corruption branch after the input was received by the CBI. The ED official who works with the agency’s headquarters was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe,” a CBI officer told News18.

Officials said that the case came to light after a jeweller was raided by the ED in Mumbai. The charge against Yadav is that he attempted to implicate the businessman after the raids. “An FIR was registered and a trap laid under the Prevention of Corruption Act after the CBI received a complaint that the ED officer was demanding a bribe,” a CBI representative said.

The FIR said that a complaint was received from Vipul Harish Thakkar of Wadala, Mumbai, on August 6 that Sandeep Singh and co-accused Alok Kumar Pankaj from the ED headquarters were threatening to arrest Vipul’s son Nihar Thakkar if a bribe of 20 lakh rupees was not paid.

‘The aforesaid facts prima facie discloses commission of cognizable offence punishable under section 61(2) (a) BNS and section 7 of PC Act,” the CBI FIR said.

According to the ED, taking immediate cognisance of this incident and following the policy of zero-tolerance towards corruption, the agency has initiated criminal action against Sandeep Singh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

“ECIR is registered against him and a search operation is conducted at his residence on 08-08-2024 under the provisions of PMLA by ED so as to gather evidences of his criminal activities,” said a statement. “His office was jointly searched on 08-08-2024 by CBI and ED to collect evidences related to the offence.”

In addition to the PMLA case, action has also been initiated to place the officer under immediate suspension and for his repatriation to his parent department from the ED, added the statement.

“On verification of facts which led to the arrest of Sandeep Singh, it is found that ED was conducting a money laundering investigation against certain entities based on multiple FIRs of Delhi, Uttrakhand, Bangalore Police FIRs. In this case, search action was conducted and completed on 04-08-2024. During the course of this action, Sandeep Singh, Assistant Director, ED acting as the ‘Search Warrant Authorized Officer’ had conducted the search at the residential premises in Mumbai of an individual under investigation,” said the agency.

Vipul Thakkar is the owner of M/s V S Gold, an entity which was suspected to be part of money laundering. “The search was uneventful and conducted as per the due procedure. Sandeep Singh is not the investigating officer of this ECIR. He was requisitioned for the limited purpose of conducting the search at the target premises. However, Sandeep Singh represented himself as investigating officer and allegedly accepted the bribe for favouring the accused though he was no way connected with the case being investigated,” the agency said.

Further investigations by the ED are in progress.