In a shocking piece of news, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), which is Tamil Nadu's premier corruption watchdog, has apprehended a man who is alleged to be an officer of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the grounds of taking bribe of Rs 20 lakh for closing up the cases. ED has been under scrutiny for several months for being a lapdog of the Modi regime in targeting the opposition leaders and the dissenters of the government. 

In the midst of growing influence of ED on several opposition leaders across the country, the development that an ED officer was arrested in Tamil Nadu for taking bribe had shocked the nation. DVAC has arrested a man named Ankit Tiwari in Dindigul on Friday - December 1 on bribery charges. DVAC is now investigating him in various angles including whether he is really an officer attached to the central agency. 

DVAC had seized cash worth Rs 20 lakh from Tiwari and while the DVAC is yet to issue its official statement about the development, it has been reported that Tiwari was caught when he was receiving a bribe of Rs 20 lakh. The police said that Ankit and his men had threatened and received bribes from several people claiming that if they pay the bribe, the cases against them with the ED would be closed. 

According to reports, the DVAC officials had intercepted Tiwari's car on the Dindigul - Madurai national highway. After seizing Rs 20 lakh from the car, the officials had arrested Tiwari and taken him under custody. The officials disrupted Tiwari's car based on an intelligence input about him and the movement of bribe money. After taking him under custody, the Dindigul SP and DSP took Tiwari to the ED's regional office in Dindigul for further invesitgations. 

The arrest of an alleged ED officer Tiwari has come at a high time when the ED has been initiating raids and investigations against the senior leaders of the state-ruling DMK. Notably, Tamil Nadu Minister without portfolio Senthil Balaji has been under the custody of ED since June this year in a money laundering case and earlier this July, the ED sleuths had conducted raids at the residence of Tamil Nadu's Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy. 

It has also been reported that the ED has brought several DMK ministers under its scanner and that they would face raids ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Amidst surging flaks against the ED and Modi regime for threatening the opposition parties through raids, the arrest of an ED officer Ankit Tiwari under the bribery charges had fueled the outcry against the central agency. 

According to our sources, Tiwari was then taken to the ED office in Madurai and tensions have emerged when the Tamil Nadu police entered the ED office. A team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel was brought to the ED office from the camp office in Sivagangai district. Officials of Tamil Nadu police are also being stationed at the office as investigation is underway. 

It is pertinent to note that this November, Rajasthan's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had arrested two officials on bribery charges. Their arrests have come a day after the central agency issued summons to the sons of Rajasthan's Congress party chief Govind Singh Dotasra.