Tamil Nadu court sends arrested ED officer Ankit Tiwari to police custody

Tiwari was arrested for accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a doctor, who was accused in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.

A local court in Dindigul on Tuesday allowed the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to take in its custody for two days Ankit Tiwari, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer, who was arrested for accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a doctor, who was accused in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. 

 J Mohana, who is the Special Judge for cases filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, allowed the DVAC’s plea to take Tiwari, an Enforcement Officer who was working in the ED’s Madurai sub-zonal office, on police custody. She said Tiwari will be in the custody of the anti-corruption agency for two days. 

The development comes a week after Mohana rejected a bail plea filed by Tiwari, who was arrested by the DVAC on December 1 near a toll plaza on the Madurai-Dindigul highway. The agency’s sleuths also recovered Rs 20 lakh cash from the vehicle he was travelling in. 

The arrest of an ED officer by the DVAC created a storm in Tamil Nadu with the anti-corruption agency conducting raids at the Madurai office of the Central agency. The 13-hour searches by the DVAC were termed by the ED as “not only illegal, but also mala fide.”

The case against Tiwari is that he contacted a Government employee, a doctor, and mentioned a case which was registered against him by DVAC and subsequently disposed of. The ED officer sought Rs 3 crore as bribe for him to escape legal action but agreed to accept Rs 51 lakh. 

While the doctor paid the first instalment of Rs 20 lakh on November 1, Tiwari sought the remaining amount and asked him to pay the full amount of Rs. 51 lakh. 

Suspicious over Tiwari’s activities, the doctor lodged a complaint with the Dindigul Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Unit, following which he was trapped and arrested.

After the raids, the ED had accused the DVAC team of accessing sensitive case records, information and internal documents of ED related to other cases which have no link with the alleged search case, and “ransacked the entire office.”