My seniors tried to save ‘big fish’, retired ED official writes to FM

Retired Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate Niranjan Singh, who got drug smugglers Jagdish Bhola and Raja Kandola convicted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, has written another letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

He has asked her to act against senior officials for withdrawing from him the investigation into some big cases. He alleged there had been no conviction in those high-profile cases till date as the inquiries had been hampered to save some “big fish”.

In a 65-page communique to the Union FM, he claimed that he was not allowed to continue investigation into some high-profile cases, including those relating to Inspector Inderjit Singh, AIG Raj Jit Singh, illicit liquor case in which over 130 had died during the Covid period and the alleged involvement of three IAS officials (now retired) and politicians in the irrigation scam. He said his seniors, in a bid to protect the accused, had asked him to stop interfering in those cases. He claimed that according to his investigation, at least 10 Congress MLAs in the previous regime, a minister and some men from the coterie of then CM were involved in the illicit liquor case of 2020.

He has written: “That case was also transferred from me to the Head Office, New Delhi… I got ECIR No. 33 lodged on August 28 at the Jalandhar office. I had found that the illicit liquor mafia was not only manufacturing branded IMFL at illegal factories, the owners of many distilleries had also been involved in manufacturing of IMFL and Indian liquor outside their business premises by transferring raw material during the lockdown period. By transferring the investigation out of Punjab, all criminals linked to the loss of so many lives could not be brought before the law.”

He claimed the interference of seniors in his work started after he summoned then minister Bikram Majithia for interrogation in the Jagdish Bhola drug case in December 2014. He said a senior official from Delhi also sat through during the investigation and after the summoning, he was transferred to Kolkata. The ex-ED official has named his 14 other team members, who were also transferred away to allegedly hamper investigations.

Niranjan Singh said as per the ED report tabled in Parliament, only 99 convictions had been possible till December 2024, of which 25 were effected during the investigation under him. He said he wrote to the Union FM in October 2023, October 2024 and on January 31, 2025. He said if the ministry did not investigate his complaints, he would move the Punjab and Haryana High Court.