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Madras HC rejects plea seeking CBI probe in graft case against ED officer
The Madurai bench of the high court dismissed a public interest litigation, filed by a Madurai advocate J Vivek, seeking the transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation
The Madras high court on Friday upheld the jurisdiction of Tamil Nadu’s anti-corruption wing Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in connection with the arrest of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer Anikt Tiwari .
The Madurai bench of the high court comprising justices M Sundar and R Sakthivel dismissed a public interest litigation, filed by a Madurai advocate J Vivek, seeking the transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The DVAC had arrested Tiwari on December 1 on charges of threatening and accepting a bribe of ₹20 lakh and subsequently carried out a raid at the ED’s sub-zonal office in Madurai. During the hearing, the state submitted that the case is a cognisable offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Tiwari is under the custody of the DVAC until December 28. The Dindigul chief judicial magistrate (CJM) had denied him the bail on December 5 citing the gravity of the offence and the early stage of the investigation. The officer approached the Madras high court for bail contesting the changes against him as “baseless and malicious”.
Tiwari was caught immediately after having accepted a bribe of ₹20 lakh from a government doctor in Dindigul district, Dr T Suresh Babu in exchange for closing a case against him, according to people familiar with the matter. In his bail application, Tiwari said that there were “no pending cases against the government doctor thus nullifying any grounds for demanding a bribe”. Justice V Sivagnanam on Friday directed the DVAC and the Tamil Nadu government to respond to Tiwari’s bail application by December 19.
The doctor had tipped off the DVAC on November 30 after Tiwari had on November 29 said that he got instructions from the Prime Minister’s office to investigate him and had asked for ₹3 crore to close the case, according to the FIR filed by DVAC on November 30. They finally negotiated to settle at ₹ 51 lakh, said the people quoted above. As agreed the doctor paid the first instalment of ₹20 lakh on December 1 inside his car which was recorded on camera, said the people. Following this, the DVAC caught Tiwari near the Dindigul-Madurai highway.
In a complaint to the Tamil Nadu police, the ED has accused the DVAC of criminal “trespass, stealing and taking copies of sensitive documents which could jeopardise investigation” and of letting unauthorised people inside their office and conducting an illegal search.
