ED official arrested for taking bribe

New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS) An Assistant Director of the Enforcement Directorate has been arrested by the CBI for passing himself off as the investigating officer and extorting Rs 20 lakh from an individual being probed by the probe agency to favour him, an official statement said.

ED Assistant Director Sandeep Singh was trapped by CBI Mumbai in New Delhi on Wednesday, along with Rs 20 lakh cash, it said, adding searches were carried out at his residence and office on Thursday to collect further evidence.

As per the statement, the ED was conducting a money laundering investigation against certain entities based on multiple FIRs of Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Bengaluru police FIRs, and in this case, search action was conducted and completed on August 4.

During this action, Sandeep Singh, acting as the "Search Warrant Authorised Officer" had conducted the search at the residential premises in Mumbai of an individual under investigation, identified as Vipul Thakkar, the owner of V S Gold, an entity which was suspected to be part of money laundering.

The search, conducted as per the due procedure, was uneventful, the statement said, adding that Sandeep Singh was not the investigating officer of this ECIR and was only requisitioned for the limited purpose of conducting the search at the target premises.

However, he represented himself as the investigating officer and allegedly accepted the bribe for favouring the accused though he was in no way connected with the case being investigated.

Taking immediate cognisance of this incident and following the policy of zero tolerance towards corruption, the ED has initiated criminal action against Sandeep Singh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. An ECIR is registered against him and a search operation is conducted at his residence on Thursday to gather evidence of his criminal activities.

His office was jointly searched on Thursday by the CBI and the ED to collect evidence related to the offence.

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

Further investigations are in progress, the statement said.

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