ED stands behind Rajeshwar Singh

Bringing to fore the chinks among agencies, the ED on Wednesday debunked a “report” by a central agency that one of its officers investigating the 2G scam and Aircel-Maxis case was in touch with an Indian with links to Pakistan’s ISI.

The terse Enforcement Directorate (ED) statement supporting its Joint Director Rajeshwar Singh came soon after BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who also supports the officer, held a press conference to release the purported report placed before the Supreme Court and question the assertions in it.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it was free to look into the “serious” allegations against Singh in a petition seeking a probe into his conduct. The Centre had submitted a report in a sealed cover, which Swamy claimed was submitted in 2016 and was available on Twitter.

In a statement, the ED sought to clear the air on its officer saying, “Singh received a call in 2016 from a person based out of Dubai who gave important information” about a case being investigated by the agency.

“Dr Rajeshwar Singh, being a responsible officer with outstanding career records, passed on this information to the directorate and the same was used in the investigation of the case. It is important to note that he received only one call and that too it was an incoming call from this person in Dubai,” it said.

As per the report that was shared by Swamy with media, Danish Shah, who is presently residing in UAE and is married to a Pakistani national Afsha Munir, has been claiming that he is working for India's external spy organisation Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and that he is close to a “high-ranking official” in the ED.

The report prepared by the RAW claimed that its investigations brought to light that Shah, whom it strongly suspected to be “working for the ISI and is believed to be reporting to the ISI on the visits of Indian VIPs to Dubai", "is in touch" with Singh.

It also said Shah's Facebook account showed pictures of him with senior politicians like Somnath Chatterjee, Meira Kumar and Sheila Dikshit.

With Shah's wife belonging to a family that has its members in top echelons of the Pakistani military, the report also claimed that Shah was in touch with controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma, who was arrested in connection with various cases, including Naval war room leak case.

The report also claimed that Shah, who is the founder and Chairman of Greenpeace Global Trading LLC Company in Dubai, used his wife's family connections to "build acquaintances" with Pak security establishment. The report also gave two Pakistani mobile numbers in which Shah used to contact.

Sources said Singh received the call as part of an investigation against a “politically exposed person”. Swamy claimed in the press conference that “some powerful people” were after Singh as he was investigating the Aircel-Maxis deal case in which a second charge sheet would be filed in a trial court shortly.