New Delhi: Sleuths from the Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday swooped down on two senior officers of the Enforcement Directorate - a Deputy Director and an Assistant Director - and caught them red-handed accepting Rs 5 lakh - the first installment of a Rs 75 lakh bribe to settle a PMLA case against a company being investigated for a bank fraud of over Rs 100 crore.
Officials of the anti-graft agency told Millennium Post that DD Purna Kam Singh and AD Bhuvnesh Kumar were caught in a trap laid by investigators in Ahmedabad after the victim in the case approached the CBI with a complaint.
The complainant, one Paresh H Patel, Director of HM Industrial Pvt Ltd, has told the Central Bureau of Investigation that DD Purna Kam Singh had summoned him and his son, Hardik Patel to their offices in Helmet Circle in April and May this year to record their statements in the PMLA case related to the 2020 Rs 104 crore bank fraud case being probed by the CBI.
Significantly, according to the CBI's FIR against the ED officers, Paresh Patel told probe officers that when he and his son had submitted to the ED offices for questioning before Singh on June 18 this year, they were beaten up, abused and threatened by him. He was assisted by Kumar at the time, the complainant said.
He added that the officers proceeded to threaten them that they would attach their properties in the instant case. Further, Singh went on to demand Rs 75 lakh in bribes to settle the PMLA case and stop beating them. The complainant said this was also in the presence of Kumar.
Interestingly, the ED officers told the complainant to speak of the bribe amount in code. For instance, one kilo is one lakh.
Following this, according to the CBI FIR, Paresh Patel was contacted by Kumar, who gave instructions on how to transfer the first installment of Rs 5 lakh through an Angadia firm in Delhi.
This is not the first time the CBI has cracked down on officers taking bribes to settle economic offence cases. In fact, the agency is currently investigating a case involving multiple of its own officials in Delhi, who stand accused of taking regular bribes from suspects in bank fraud cases.