New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu Police have reportedly registered a case against the Enforcement Directorate and others for allegedly preventing investigators of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) from discharging their duties.
The police have also summoned Brijesh Beniwal, Assistant Director, ED, Madurai sub-zonal office, to appear before the Tallakulam police station on Tuesday, Deccan Herald reported.
The tensions between the ED and Tamil Nadu Police escalated after the police had arrested an ED official in the state. On December 1, the state police arrested ED official Ankit Tiwari, alleging that he had been caught “red-handed” while accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a doctor in the Dindigul district.
Tiwari along with his team of ED officers had allegedly been threatening several people and receiving bribes in the name of closing their case at the ED, the police stated. DVAC officials caught him with Rs 20 lakh cash in Dindigul. DVAC also searched the ED Office in Madurai. Tiwari is still in jail, having been denied bail by both the trial court and the Madras high court.
According to The Hindu, in the fresh case filed by the Tamil Nadu Police against in the ED, the police claim that the ED refused to allow DVAC officials to search Tiwari’s offices after his arrest on December 1.
“We lodged a complaint with the Madurai city police that the DVAC search team was prevented from entering the chamber of accused officer Ankit Tiwari for more than three hours. The Assistant Director informed that the Deputy Director was in Chennai and was air dashing to Madurai to approve the search. But he did not come… we had to seek the assistance of the local police to carry out the search,” a senior DVAC official told The Hindu.
The ED too claims to be probing both Tiwari as well as officers of the DVAC. According to The Times of India, the ED has moved this probe out of the state to its New Delhi headquarters. ED sources reportedly told the newspaper that this was because of fears of meddling from the local police.
The ED claims had previously filed a complaint against DVAC officers with the Tamil Nadu Police, which did not register an FIR. According to media reports, Beniwal’s complaints from December 2 had accused the DVAC team of accessing sensitive case records, information and internal documents of the ED related to other cases which have no link with the alleged search case, and ransacking “the entire office”.
However, Tamil Nadu Police officers told The Hindu that they received no such complaint from the ED on that date. The Hindu‘s report states:
“On December 16, 2023, a reminder letter requesting action was received by the DGP’s office wherein the original complaint was enclosed. The DGP forwarded the reminder enclosed with the original complaint to the Madurai Police Commissioner to conduct a detailed inquiry and send a report.
“As part of the inquiry, the Madurai Police Commissioner sent a letter calling the ED officials to give evidence to substantiate their allegations. But they refused to accept the letter and insisted that the same be sent by post. We then sent the letter by registered post… there is no response yet. They have not turned up for the inquiry so far,” the official said, adding that it was not correct to say that no action was taken on ED’s complaint.”