Chennai: For the first time in Tamil Nadu, sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Friday arrested an Enforcement Officer working with the Enforcement Directorate on bribery charges and also mounted searches on the office of the central agency in Madurai. This incident comes nearly a month after Rajasthan Police had executed a similar arrest of ED personnel.
Sources in the DVAC said its officers seized ₹20 lakh cash, received as bribe from Suresh Babu, a Government Doctor in Dindigul near Madurai, from the car of the Enforcement Officer Ankit Tiwari, who had earlier served in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The arrested officer was brought to Madurai and the Vigilance team searched his house as well before entering the office of the ED with a heavy police force in the evening. At the time of filing this report, the searches were on at the ED office.
A DVAC officer said Suresh Babu was facing a disproportionate assets case which was registered five years ago. “Tiwari had established contact with Babu and asked him to pay up ₹2 crore as bribe failing which the ED would launch a probe against him. The doctor had expressed his inability to pay this sum. Following this, the ED officer scaled down his demand to ₹51 lakh. Babu, fearing imprisonment for a longer spell if arrested by the ED, managed to pay him ₹20 lakh a month ago. However, Tiwari wanted him to pay ₹31 lakh more. Thereafter, Babu filed a complaint with the local unit of the DVAC in Dindigul,” he said.
The DVAC registered a case and decided to lay a trap for Tiwari. It then asked Babu to hand over chemical coated currency of the face value of ₹20 lakh. “The money was handed over to the accused officer of the central agency early on Friday at a location on the Dindigul-Madurai Highway. After receiving the money Tiwari sped away in his car. Our officers, who were waiting, chased his car and intercepted it at the Kodaikanal Road Toll Plaza and recovered the cash and arrested Tiwari,” the officer said.
