ED now divests Niranjan of hawala cases, triggers row

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 22

The central investigative agency, Enforcement Directorate, has divested its Assistant Director Niranjan Singh of all major cases he had been investigating for the past few years.

Earlier, Niranjan Singh, who had summoned Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia, took on his own department in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue of his transfer.

The department has refrained from taking back the Bhola drug case from him wherein he had interrogated several political bigwigs as the case is now being monitored by the court.

The ED officials were reportedly annoyed over his hiring an independent lawyer and countering its claims in the court to safeguard his transfer and retain the case.

The fresh move is being seen as an attempt by the directorate to slowly dislodge him from other cases. A case of Prevention of Money Laundering Act wherein Niranjan Singh had summoned singers Gippy Grewal, Jazzy B and Miss Pooja also stands withdrawn from him.

Another Rs1,200 crore hawala racket which the investigating officer unearthed, involving more than 350 foreign exchange companies in Punjab, has been taken back from him and given to four other officers posted here.

Niranjan Singh now retains only a small part of the investigation into Jalandhar-based Happy Forex owner, who was the kingpin here, while the remaining part of the case involving money changers of Ludhiana, Phagwara and Nawanshahr has now been withdrawn from him.

The department had two months ago shifted two of its Assistant Directors — Ajay Singh and Rajiv Kumar — to Jalandhar to take up the case, but Niranjan Singh had countered the move in the court saying that their substitutes were not experienced enough to handle the high-profile case.

During the course of arguments, he had also mentioned that he could complete the investigation into Bhola drug case within six months.