Mumbai: The special CBI court on Friday remanded arrested Enforcement Directorate (ED) assistant director Sandeep Singh Yadav to CBI custody till August 14. Yadav was caught red-handed accepting Rs 20 lakh from a Mumbai-based jeweller who was being probed in a money laundering case.
The CBI sought Yadav’s custody and contended that the ED had initiated a probe against Tanvi Gold Pvt Ltd and came across several transactions with M/s VS Gold owned by Vipul Thakkar, the complainant.
The ED carried out searches at premises of VS Gold, including Thakkar’s house in Prabhadevi on August 2-3, where Yadav and ED official Alok Jha threatened the family. Jha then asked Thakkar to speak to Yadav to save his son Nihar from being implicated.
The CBI claimed that Yadav demanded Rs 25 lakh but settled at Rs 20 lakh. He took Thakkar’s daughter Nupur’s phone number and called her on August 5. On WhatsApp, he set the place and time to send the money through an angadia, sharing the number of a Rs 20 currency note as code.
The CBI has hinted at the involvement of senior ED officials. Yadav’s lawyer, however, said he has been falsely implicated and no cash was found.