CBI registers another FIR against ED's assistant director over bribery

New Delhi: The CBI has registered one more FIR in connection with alleged bribery scandal involving Enforcement Directorate's assistant director posted in Shimla, who had escaped during a trap operation conducted by the agency last week, officials said Monday.

The CBI has now registered two FIRs with one pertaining to alleged bribe demand of Rs 85 lakh and another of Rs 80 lakh from the promoters of educational institutes in Himachal Pradesh, they said.

The promoters, who were also the complainant in the case, addressed a press conference in Shimla, alleging that the assistant director used to call them to office, torture them and demanded bribe.

The officer and two of his staff members made us sit in the Shimla ED office for hours during which they would keep demanding money, they alleged.

The CBI has three suspects under scanner in the case with the brother of the accused and a middleman already arrested, while the officer is understood to be on the run and has not joined the investigation so far, they said.

The assistant director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) posted at Shimla and his brother, a senior manager at the Punjab National Bank in Delhi, had allegedly gone to a location near Chandigarh to receive the bribe from an educational institute promoter, who is facing a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said.

The case pertains to post-matriculation scholarship scam in Himachal Pradesh.

The owner of the educational institute had filed a complaint with the CBI about alleged extortion, based on which the Chandigarh unit of the agency planned the trap operation, where the complainant was asked to give a bribe of Rs 55 lakh in cash to the officer, with CBI sleuths keeping an eye, the officials said.

The plan was that the CBI would nab the accused after the bribe was received by him, they said.

The ED officer, who is on deputation from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), got alerted during the operation and allegedly fled, the officials said.

The agency has been trying to locate him for seven days.

So far, cash amounting to around Rs 1 crore, including the bribe money, has been allegedly recovered during searches, the officials said.

Sources in the ED said the accused assistant director of its Shimla sub-zonal office and his supervisory officers -- a deputy director and the joint director (based in Chandigarh) -- have been transferred to Delhi following the case.