New Delhi: The Kerala Police has seemingly turned the heat on the Enforcement Directorate’s Kochi unit, booking an assistant director-level officer on the charges of seeking Rs 2 crore bribe from an accused in a case of money laundering registered in 2021.
Senior ED officers ThePrint spoke to refuted the allegations against fellow colleague Shekhar Kumar, with some of them dismissing it as a “tactic to evade investigation in the money laundering case.”
Kumar, posted at the ED’s Kochi zonal office, was booked under Sections 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita after the police received a complaint from a cashew businessman based in Kollam.
Section 7(a) of the PCA deals with offences amounting to taking undue advantage to influence public servants by corrupt or illegal means or by exercise of personal influence.
Aneesh Babu, who runs a family firm named Vazhavila Cashew with his parents and wife in Kollam district, approached the Kerala Police’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) with a complaint that “agents” of the ED reached out to him seeking a bribe of Rs 2 crore.
In his complaint, the businessman mentioned that he was allegedly instructed to deposit Rs 2 crore in four installments in Mumbai-based bank accounts of a private firm by Kumar while Rs 2 lakh was instructed to be paid to a “middleman”, Wilson.
Subsequently, Aneesh approached the VACB’s Ernakulam unit that set up a trap and nabbed Wilson with Rs 2 lakh. The ED assistant director was made the prime accused in this bribery-related case.
Based on revelation by Wilson, the VACB arrested Murali Mukesh, a resident of Rajasthan, and chartered accountant (CA) Ranjit on Friday. Ranjit worked as conduits for the entire module, sources in the Bureau said.
“Ranjit is a career CA in Kochi and he has got contacts among IRS officials working in the region from his father, who was also a CA. He had well-established contacts among ED officers and worked as a conduit in the bribery module,” a VACB officer told ThePrint.
But, an ED officer commented that the FIR against Kumar was “baseless” and added that he was named as the primary accused without a preliminary inquiry.
“Ample opportunities have been given to the accused (the Kollam businessman) to cooperate with investigation with respect to syphoning of money more than Rs 20 crore abroad by running a family firm, importing cashews,” the ED officer said.
“However, he has evaded summons, has left office in the name of lunch break to never return, leaving the statements unsigned and using time to file repetitive petitions which have been dismissed on multiple occasions by courts.”
But, the VACB asserted that the corruption case was running independent of the money laundering case.
“We have got nothing to do about the involvement of the accused in the predicate offence. We are a competent authority to deal with cases of corruption involving public servants. In this case, an allegation of demand for a bribe was made. A trap was laid and part of the bribe amount as well as persons involved in the racket were arrested red-handed,” a source in Kerala VACB told ThePrint. “There is a clear-cut prima facie case of corruption.”
Cashew import business at heart of case
In the VACB FIR, a copy of which ThePrint has seen, Kumar sought documents related to business transactions of Vazhavila Cashew carried out years ago, from Aneesh.
Later this year, Wilson allegedly asked him to pay up Rs 2 crore to get the case settled. To prove “his connections”, Aneesh alleged, Wilson said that a fresh summon would be issued for appearance on 14 May.
That same day, according to the businessman, he met Wilson near the ED office where he was suggested to cough up Rs 2 crore in four installments as well as pay Rs 2 lakh in cash. Wilson was arrested 15 May.
Wilson revealed during questioning that he had a fixed cut of 10 percent from bribes while Ranjit’s commission was fixed at around 15 percent, according to the VACB officials.
On its part, the ED alleged that the Kollam businessman was a “fraudster” and refused to comply with summons and cooperate in the investigation in an ECIR registered in 2021.
“There are at least five cases registered by police alone, including one where his firm was booked for defrauding a man who had put in money for import of cashew from Tanzania but never received it,” an ED officer said. “He was also accused of forging papers to establish enough cashew stocks to seek money from the complainant. He has forged documents to siphon off at least Rs 24.73 crore overseas.”
The money laundering case against the businessman stems from at least five FIRs filed by the Kerala Police against him and his parents.
Sources in the ED said that the Babu family was summoned first during October 2021 but they skipped the notice. Another summons to appear 8 October, 2024 also went unheeded.
“They appeared on 28 October last year and went for lunch, thereafter, did not return as promised. Thereafter, Aneesh had remained non-compliant and did not attend the ED proceedings,” a second ED officer said.
“At least twice, he did not sign a statement and left office on one pretext or the other. He has cited kidney ailment in the past to claim inability to sit for a long period of time and not returned since then. Instead, he filed frivolous and repetitive petitions before the court which have been denied,” a third ED officer said.
Sources in the ED said that the accused approached the Kerala High Court twice—once in 2024 and in February this year—seeking anticipatory bail but failed to get relief. In February, dismissing the bail petition, the HC had noted that the family could appear before the ED as they were summoned only for investigation.
A month later, the Supreme Court too quashed the businessman’s petition to challenge the HC order citing no ground to interfere.
“Having exhausted all legal avenues to stop criminal proceedings under the PMLA, the accused has come out with a malafide intention to tarnish the image of the ED and its officers. We are not ruling out allegations against our officer at this stage. We will seek details from the VACB before taking necessary steps,” the third ED officer said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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