IPL ‘bribery’ case: CBI net traps top ED officer in Gujarat

It is alleged that crores of rupees were handed over as bribe to Singh’s father-in-law, S K S Somvanshi, a retired IRS officer of 1978 batch, by hawala dealers and tax consultants for extending favours to suspects in two cases being probed by ED.

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According to ED sources, Singh, an IRS officer, had been demanding and accepting bribes from the accused in two important cases — a Rs 5,000 crore money laundering case against alleged hawala operator from Surat, Afroz Fatta, and a Rs 2,000 crore IPL betting racket which was busted recently by the agency in Gujarat.

Besides carrying out searches at the residences of Singh and additional directors Sanjay Kumar and P S Srinivas, both ED cadre officers, in Ahmedabad, the CBI also raided Somvanshi’s residence in Delhi. A team was also sent to Surat to search Srinivas’s residence there.

The CBI registered the corruption case based on a complaint filed by the ED, which earlier carried out an internal investigation against these officers.

“The ED director had been receiving complaints against Singh for some time. A week ago, a team under a senior ED official from Mumbai was sent to Ahmedabad to investigate the allegations. When it was found that the allegations were prima facie true, a request was put through the finance ministry for the matter to be investigated by CBI,” said an ED official.

“CBI 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 under Sections 7, 12, 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act read with Section 120-B of IPC,” said a CBI statement.

Singh was also investigating a case against the Adani group, referred to the ED by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), involving alleged overvaluation of import of equipment. The DRI had alleged that over Rs 2,000 crore had been siphoned off.

Singh, who was earlier with Mumbai Customs, has spent five years with the ED as joint director in charge of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Sources said after the CBI files a chargesheet, the ED could register a case against its officer and attach his properties in due course.