Chennai/Madurai: For the first time in Tamil Nadu, vigilance sleuths caught red-handed an ED official, Ankit Tiwari, while receiving a bribe of Rs 20 lakhs and entered the central agency's Madurai Zonal office for an inspection on Friday. This sensational development comes in the backdrop of the ED ramping up searches across the state from ministers to businessmen. The arrest of an ED official is unprecedented in Tamil Nadu. After a marathon questioning, Ankit Tiwari was produced before a magistrate court in Dindigul and was remanded in judicial custody for 15 days.
Tiwari was arrested based on a complaint lodged by Dr Suresh Babu, Superintendent of the Dindigul Government Medical College Hospital, against whom the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) conducted a raid and filed a disproportionate assets case in 2018. This being a predicate offence for the ED to step in, Tiwari, who took charge of the Madurai Zonal Office of the ED, has allegedly threatened the doctor to pay Rs 3 crore to close the case. According to the complaint, when he refused, the amount was scaled down to Rs 51 lakhs. Tiwari, who had received Rs 20 lakhs last month, pressed for the remaining amount. It was then that Suresh Babu approached the DVAC.
On the directive of the vigilance sleuths, Suresh Babu handed over the cash, laced with chemicals, to Tiwari at Thomaiyar Puram on the Dindigul-Madurai Highway. With the cash in his car, the ED official proceeded towards Madurai. On sighting the police following him behind, he developed cold feet and drove the vehicle at breakneck speed. However, he was caught after a hot chase at the toll plaza near the Kodaikanal road. Arresting him, the vigilance sleuths also seized the Rs 20 lakhs, the police said adding that Tiwari hails from Nagpur and was posted here in 2018.
Later in the day, a team of DVAC personnel from Dindigul landed at the ED zonal office in Madurai to search Tiwari's room. However, they faced stiff resistance from lawyers representing the central agency, and a contingent of a paramilitary force was deployed for security at the office premises. With the state police, numbering around 100 accompanying the vigilance sleuths, it appeared to be a showdown. However, they were allowed entry to search.
