StatesUttar Pradesh
CBI arrests two ED officials in Lucknow over ₹5 lakh bribe to go easy in a case
An enforcement officer and a head constable on deputation at the Enforcement Directorate's Lucknow zonal office were caught in a trap, the CBI said.
Key points
- The CBI arrested ED enforcement officer Deepak Kumar and head constable Manoj Dwivedi in Lucknow.
- Dwivedi is accused of taking ₹5 lakh from a man who had been summoned in an ED case.
- The CBI registered the case on 23 October and laid a trap the same day.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested two officials of the Enforcement Directorate in Lucknow on charges of demanding and taking a ₹5 lakh bribe from a man under ED investigation, in return for favours in his case.
The two are Deepak Kumar, an enforcement officer, and Manoj Dwivedi, a head constable on deputation to the ED. Both worked at the agency’s Lucknow zonal office.
According to the CBI, the complainant’s father had been summoned twice in an ED case, in August and September this year. Dwivedi is alleged to have demanded the money from the father on behalf of the enforcement officer, promising favourable treatment in the case.
The CBI registered a case on 23 October on the son’s complaint and laid a trap. Dwivedi was allegedly caught accepting the ₹5 lakh, and both men were then taken into custody. The agency said its investigation was continuing.
The CBI did not name the complainant or say what the underlying ED case was about. No statement from the Enforcement Directorate on the arrests was available by early Saturday.
The ED is the central agency that investigates money-laundering and foreign-exchange violations, and it has wide powers to summon, question and arrest people under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. That reach is what the complaint says was being sold: a lighter touch for a man the agency had already summoned twice.