IPL bets scam: Enforcement Directorate raids own ex-officials

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches against its former joint director, another officer and a few bookies in connection with its money laundering probe for allegedly receiving bribe for favouring an accused in the IPL cricket betting scam.

Sources said searches were conducted at the premises of former joint director J.P. Singh, former enforcement officer (EO) Sanjay Kumar and two bookies. Searches were conducted at nine locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat and Lucknow, they added. The agency sleuths also recovered about Rs 1.63 lakh in cash during searches.

The ED had earlier registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a CBI FIR. Singh, a 2000 batch Indian Revenue Service officer of Customs and Excise wing, was investigating Rs 2,000 crore IPL betting scandal when he was posted as ED’s Joint Director in Ahmedabad.

The ED’s Ahmedabad unit was also probing Rs 5,000 crore money laundering case against the alleged hawala operator Afroz Fatta.

The CBI claimed that huge bribe amount was allegedly taken by these officers as quid pro quo for various acts of omission and commission. The case against Singh and others had been registered under the provisions of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Sources said the ED director had received multiple complaints from various quarters about the alleged demand for bribe by the senior officials of its Ahmedabad unit.

The complaints were forwarded to the CBI. There were also allegations that Rs 15 crore was handed over as bribe to Singh’s father-in-law, who is a retired IRS officer of 1978 batch, by hawala dealers and tax consultants for giving relief and extending favours to suspects in two cases earlier probed by ED, sources said.