Ahmedabad

The CBI today conducted a sensational raid at the Enforcement Directorate’s Ahmedabad office and some other locations in the city in connection with the alleged hi- profile bribery in two major cases -Rs 2,000 crore IPL betting scandal and Rs 5,000 crore money laundering case against alleged hawala operator Afroz Fatta- and booked at least three senior IRS officers including Joint Director J P Singh.

Official Sources in the investigating agency said that a case has been registered under provisions of criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Coded and Prevention of Corruption Act against Mr Singh and unknown officials of ED and other persons.

Allegedly a whooping Rs 15 crore was handed over as bribe to Singh’s father-in-law, S K S Somvanshi by hawala dealers and tax consultants for giving relief and extending favours to suspects in the two cases probed by the Ahmedabad branch of ED.
The raids were conducted at four places in Ahmedabad including the ED office and residences of Singh and two of his subordinates Additional Directors Sanjay Kumar and P S Srinivas, both ED cadre.

A similar raid by the CBI was also conducted at the residence of Singh’s father in law in Delhi and at Srinivas’ residence in Surat, the sources said. The ED Director had earlier received multiple complaints from various quarters about the alleged demand for bribe by the senior officials of its Ahmedabad unit and he forwarded it to CBI.

Some important clues and documents have been seized during the raids, the sources said adding that the agency was keeping a watch on the accused officers for some time.

Meanwhile a statement issued by the CBI said, ‘ The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against a Joint Director (an IRS Officer) posted at the office of Enforcement Directorate, Ahmedabad, and other unknown public servants and private persons on a complaint from Ministry of Finance(Government of India) U/s 7, 12, 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988 r/w 120-B IPC.’

DeshGujarat