CBI apprehends two ED officials in Gujarat for demanding Rs 75 lakh bribe

New Delhi, July 2

The CBI on Friday apprehended a deputy director and an assistant director of the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly demanding Rs 75 lakh bribe from the owner of a Gujarat-based firm under probe for Rs 104 crore bank fraud, officials said.

Deputy Director Purna Kam Singh, a 2013-batch IRS officer, and Assistant Director Bhuvnesh Kumar, both posted in Ahmedabad branch of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), were nabbed for allegedly receiving Rs 5 lakh bribe through a middleman as first installment of the total bribe amount, they said.

Both the officers along with their two alleged accomplices may be formally arrested, they said.

The owner of a company which is into the business of castor oil and steel pipes had come under CBI and ED probe in an alleged bank fraud case of Rs 104 crore, the CBI FIR said.

The businessman and his son were called to the ED office in Ahmedabad on April 22 and May 25 this year for questioning in the case by Singh and Kumar, officials said.

On June 18, when the father-son duo went to the ED office as per the notices, both were beaten by Singh who also threatened to attach their assets, they said.

Singh told the businessman to cough up Rs 75 lakh as bribe to settle his case and escape the beating, the FIR alleged.

The officer also told the businessman and his son to discuss the bribe amount in code language—a kilo for a lakh—in the future verbal exchanges.

Nearly a week later on June 26, Kumar called the complainant, but there was no response. In the evening, the complainant called back Kumar and the officer told him to pay the first installment of Rs 5 lakh along with instructions to route it through a particular ‘angadia’ (courier) firm and middleman in Delhi.

After getting the information, the CBI laid a trap and the middlemen were arrested. It was followed by detention of the two officers in Ahmedabad, officials added.  PTI