MADURAI: Ankit Tiwari, an ED officer arrested Friday in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul on charges of taking bribes from a government doctor on the pretext of reopening an old assets case, told his target that he’d been “instructed by the PMO” to conduct an inquiry and that the cash was for “his superiors”, the state vigilance’s FIR states.
Much of Tiwari’s conversations with Dr T Suresh Babu, who had “agreed” to pay a total of Rs 51 lakh, were recorded in a camera inside the medico’s car.These are some of the lurid details of the FIR against Tiwari by TN’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), a copy of which is available with the TOI. Babu is the chief civil surgeon of Dindigul Government Medical College Hospital. Tiwari has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act based on a complaint by the doctor. Tiwari had allegedly demanded Rs 3 crore from Babu initially, but closed the deal at Rs 51 lakh.
While Tiwari, 36, was trapped with Rs 20 lakh with the help of Babu in an unprecedented highway drama and remanded in judicial custody till December 15, equally unparalleled were DVAC searches on Saturday at the ED’s Madurai office after the arrest. The rare instance of such DVAC action at a Union government entity’s offices came at a time ED has been probing governing DMK leaders and CM MK Stalin has accused the BJP-led Centre of using central agencies to crush political rivals.While DVAC said in a statement that it had seized several incriminating documents from the ED office in Madurai, the central agency’s senior officials in Chennai said only Tiwari’s room was searched by the state vigilance.
Tiwari used details of corruption cases registered by DVAC and approached the accused to extort money, officials of the state agency have claimed. DVAC had investigated Babu in 2018 in a disproportionate wealth case but cleared him later.
Much of Tiwari’s conversations with Dr T Suresh Babu, who had “agreed” to pay a total of Rs 51 lakh, were recorded in a camera inside the medico’s car.These are some of the lurid details of the FIR against Tiwari by TN’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), a copy of which is available with the TOI. Babu is the chief civil surgeon of Dindigul Government Medical College Hospital. Tiwari has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act based on a complaint by the doctor. Tiwari had allegedly demanded Rs 3 crore from Babu initially, but closed the deal at Rs 51 lakh.
While Tiwari, 36, was trapped with Rs 20 lakh with the help of Babu in an unprecedented highway drama and remanded in judicial custody till December 15, equally unparalleled were DVAC searches on Saturday at the ED’s Madurai office after the arrest. The rare instance of such DVAC action at a Union government entity’s offices came at a time ED has been probing governing DMK leaders and CM MK Stalin has accused the BJP-led Centre of using central agencies to crush political rivals.While DVAC said in a statement that it had seized several incriminating documents from the ED office in Madurai, the central agency’s senior officials in Chennai said only Tiwari’s room was searched by the state vigilance.
Tiwari used details of corruption cases registered by DVAC and approached the accused to extort money, officials of the state agency have claimed. DVAC had investigated Babu in 2018 in a disproportionate wealth case but cleared him later.