The Enforcement Directorate has arrested a former sepoy, who was on a deputation with its Kolkata office from 2019 to 2022, for alleged impersonation as an investigating officer, conducting an unauthorised search operation and issuing forged summons. This is the second such instance in a month wherein the agency acted against those working/ having worked with it.
On March 24, the agency had said it arrested two of its contractual staff working in the Mumbai ED office for allegedly handing over probe-related sensitive information in lieu of bribes to an associate of an accused, who was arrested as well.
Accused identified as Sukumar Kamaliya
On Sunday, the ED arrested Sukumar Kamaliya, head constable, SSB (Sashastra Seema Bal). The probe revealed that Kamaliya had allegedly illegally acquired information about an investigation being conducted against a person during his stint with the ED.
Accused issued fraudulent summons
After his repatriation, Kamaliya allegedly issued fraudulent summons through WhatsApp to the said person in order to extort money from him. He allegedly also conducted an unauthorised search operation at a coffee shop in south Kolkata in another instance and threatened its owner to cough up Rs10 lakh to escape action. The owner, however, lodged a complaint with the ED. The search of Kamaliya’s residence led to recovery and seizure of certain incriminating documents.
ED nabs 3 in Seva Vikas Cooperative Bank scam case
In the Mumbai case, the ED had nabbed three persons as part of its money-laundering probe into the alleged fraud in Pune’s Seva Vikas Cooperative Bank. One of the arrested accused, Bablu Sonkar, was an alleged associate of a case accused. The other two were contractual staff working in the ED Mumbai office.
The ED had found Sonkar allegedly lurking around its office after which he was intercepted. Sonkar was said to be tasked by the case accused to threaten witnesses and to pass on bribe amounts to two contractual ED employees, a data entry operator and a contingent staff, in lieu of sensitive information. The alleged bribe amount paid was recovered by the ED.
