Bezbaruah’s deputy was extorting money, says CVC

The order, signed by CVC’s Deputy Secretary Viswapawan Pati, cites various acts of “omission” by Aggarwal while handling four key cases including those involving Chandraswami, Jain TV and two Delhi businessmen Amit Burman and Subhash Bajatya. And says that these are “extremely serious” and that the officer extorted money from some of them.

Three days after the CVC order,Aggarwal was shunted out of ED and put on “compulsory wait” in the Department of Revenue, ending his two-year stint in the ED.

The Ministry of Finance, in the meantime, has contacted Standing Government Counsel in the Supreme Court, High Court and the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), to be ready with rejoinders should Aggarwal decide to challenge his transfer in court.

The CVC’s intervention comes after a year-long deadlock in the ED over Aggarwal’s alleged misdemeanours. Former ED chief M K Bezbaruah had sent several complaints to the Ministry of Finance against Aggarwal which were ignored. Curiously enough, Aggarwal’s transfer orders came a day after Bezbaruah’s own exit from the Enforcement Directorate, owing to the post of ED Director being upgraded to that of Special Secretary.

Despite several attempts by The Indian Express, Aggarwal was not available for comment.

The CVC says that it carefully examined Bezbaruah’s complaints and concluded that there is “enough evidence on recordto prima facie establish that the intention of Shri Aggarwal in dealing with various cases was malafide and motivated.”

The CVC’s note thereafter states that it agreed with Bezbaruah’s opinion that the case warranted a CBI probe. “The Commission would advice accordingly. The Commission could also advise that Shri Aggarwal should be posted outside Delhi in any non-sensitive assignment pending CBI’s investigation and the Commission’s advice thereon…” the note reads.

Following receipt of a copy of the CVC’s orders on December 29, Bezbaruah divested Aggarwal of his charge as head of the ED’s Delhi Zone and and in a reorganisation of portfolios, gave him charge of answering Parliament questions and handling the ED’s computer unit.

Bezbaruah’s complaints and the CVC order were shown to Revenue Secretary Javed Chaudhury and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha following which Aggarwal’s transfer orders, signed by Additional Secretary, G C Srivastava, were served.