DVAC concludes searches at ED office in Madurai

Highly placed sources told DH that the searches at the ED office and at the residence of Ankit Tiwari, the Enforcement Officer with the agency, in Madurai yielded several 'incriminating documents' about his involvement in a bribery case.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s anti-corruption watchdog, Directorate of Anti-corruption and Vigilance (DVAC), on Saturday wrapped up a 13-hour-long extensive search at the sub-zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Madurai after arresting an officer of the agency for accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a government doctor.

Highly placed sources told DH that the searches at the ED office and at the residence of Ankit Tiwari, the Enforcement Officer with the agency, in Madurai yielded several “incriminating documents” about his involvement in the bribery case. Tiwari was caught red-handed by Vigilance and Anti-corruption police in Dindigul district on Friday morning after he received Rs 20 lakh from the doctor for not reopening a disproportionate assets (DA) case, which was filed in 2018 and disposed of by the DVAC subsequently.

After the arrest, the DVAC took the unprecedented step of conducting searches at the ED office in Madurai, even as the Tamil Nadu police did not allow the deployment of paramilitary forces outside the premises, saying they lacked necessary permission. “The searches which began at around 6 pm on Friday and concluded at 6 am on Saturday,” a source said, without revealing further details.

The source added that the DVAC is inquiring into reports that Tiwari was involved in threatening a few others and demanding bribes with regard to ED cases filed against them. The raids came at a time when the ED was conducting searches on sand mining quarries in Tamil Nadu and bringing several DMK leaders under its scanner – the agency’s summons to five district collectors were stayed by the Madras High Court on November 29.

Sources said the DVAC will continue investigating the case and that the government was “not willing” to hand it over to the CBI or any other central agency.

The arrest and the raids also triggered a political row in Tamil Nadu with Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan finding fault with the searches at the central agency’s office by a state agency, while state BJP chief K Annamalai said the officer who took the bribe should be punished as per law.

“Conducting searches at the office of the ED is a wrong precedent set by the Tamil Nadu government. There may be problems with an individual but one shouldn’t find fault with the entire agency. The state and central governments should work in coordination,” Soundararajan said.

Annamalai said the entire agency should not be “discredited” for the mistake of an “individual” and appealed to the Tamil Nadu Police to handle the case “professionally” while asserting that the DVAC has the right to “arrest” the offender.

“There should not be any politics in this case. We have immature leaders in Tamil Nadu who paint every issue with the same brush. There is no doubt that the law will have to take its own course in the case of the ED officer,” Annamalai added.

Leader of Opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami also said there was nothing wrong if the ED officer was arrested if he had accepted a bribe.