ED summoning farmers: IRS officer seeks FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s dismissal

Chennai: Enforcement Directorate’s notice to two farmers who own 6.5 acres of land has taken a new twist with a serving Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, who is retiring next month, demanding the dismissal of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for “reducing” the Central agency into “BJP policy ED.” 

As activists alleged that the farmers were being targeted as they resisted attempts by a local BJP functionary to grab their land, fresh reports suggest that the ED could have issued the notice under Money Laundering Act to the two farmers from Attur in Salem as they had a case registered under Wildlife (Protection) Act in 2017 for erecting an illegal electric fence that led to the death of two Indian bison. 

However, the duo were acquitted by a local court in Attur for lack of evidence. Though the ED is empowered to investigate cases filed under Wildlife (Protection) Act, activists questioned the summons pointing to the court releasing the farmers in 2021, two years before the Central agency issued notices to Kannaiyan and Krishnan. 

The CPI (M) held a protest in Salem on Wednesday condemning the ED’s action of summoning the farmers – the notice issued to them had mentioned their caste in the envelope. 

Though the notice was issued to the brothers in June, 2023 and they appeared before the ED with help from a lawyer, the issue has come to the public domain now after a complaint was filed in the Nungambakkam police station in Chennai seeking action against the Central agency. 

Even as the ED battles criticism, B Balamurugan, Deputy Commissioner of GST and Central Excise, Chennai (North), dashed off a letter to President Draupadi Murmu seeking Nirmala Sitharaman’s “dismissal.” The officer is set to retire on January 31 after the department failed to process his request for a Voluntary Retirement from Service (VRS). 

Balamurugan, who was in the news in 2020 when he alleged that Hindi was being “imposed” on him by his colleagues, had also raised doubts over former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's death.

“The incident shows how the Enforcement Directorate has become an extended arm of BJP. In fact the Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitaraman, after taking over has successfully converted the enforcement directorate into BJP policy Enforcement Directorate,” he alleged.  

He urged the President to dismiss Sitharaman from the Cabinet to render justice to the poor Dalit farmers and to “save the Enforcement Directorate.”

The controversy assumes significance as it comes close on the heels of a tug of war between the Tamil Nadu government and the ED after the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) arrested an ED officer for receiving a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a government doctor. The arrest and subsequent raid by the DVAC in the ED’s sub-zonal office in Madurai triggered a slew of complaints from either side.