Fence Itself Grazing the Field – a disoriented sentry.

The Leader of Opposition in the Kerala assembly V D Satheesan has alleged that a majority of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials were “corrupt” and the agency was not doing the work it was created for, instead it is being used as a tool to attack the political opponents of the Centre. His allegations came when a senior ED official have been booked by the Kerala Vigilance and Anti – Corruption Bureau (VACB) in a corruption case recently, and the central department sending notices to people along with accepting ‘Crores’ from them in settling the cases by using intermediaries.

It is not doing the work it was set up for under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Not, one per cent of its cases are solved. Satheesan further mentioned that the recent case against the ED official was the latest example and evidence of the corruption in the agency.

An ED officer, attached to the Kochi unit of the central agency, was booked as the first accused in the corruption case registered as per the complaint of a businessman, the VACB had said on Saturday.

Three people, including a chartered accountant, have already been arrested in the case for allegedly seeking a bribe of Rs. Two Crores from a businessman for not arraigning him in an ED case. While inaugurating his book, ‘Narkartala Swarg’ (Heaven in Hell), the Shiv Sena (Udbhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut has alleged that the reason behind the Enforcement Directorate arresting him in an alleged money laundering case was because he had prevented the BJP from coming to power in Maharashtra in 2019. In his book, Raut has also claimed that punitive action was taken against him as he was the “protective wall” of the Uddhav Thackeray – led Maha Vikas Aghadi which reigned power that year.

The book is about Raut’s experiences in prison after ED arrested him in an alleged money laundering case in 2022, soon after the collapse of the Thackeray government. Raut later got bail.

“The (Eknath) Shinde government was formed through unconstitutional means. Both Shinde and (then Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis) must have agreed on one thing that if the government has to function, Raut must be behind bars“, he claimed. Raut said the BJP was hurt that it had to sit in the opposition despite bagging 105 seats (in the 288 member assembly in the 2019 polls).

The BJP and the Shiv Sena had contested the 2019 assembly polls together. But the Sena parted ways with the BJP over the post of chief minister. Later it became a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi along with the Congress and the (undivided) NCP.  The MVA government was led by Thackeray. Since, the government had a majority of 170 MLAs, it was not possible that their ‘Operation Lotus’ would succeed, he said. “Which is why the central agency were made to enter the battlefield. Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik and Sanjay Raut were fixed as targets“, he said.

At the same function – NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar reiterated that he had warned against a stringent provision being introduced in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the UPA regime, and as he predicted, it was later misused when the government changed. The law must be amended whenever the power at the Centre changes hands again, he said.

It was then Union minister P Chidambaram who had proposed an amendment to the PMLA during the UPA government which demonstrated that the onus to prove innocence on an arrested person, he, as a cabinet member, warned against it, Pawar said. The PMLA is being used by the current BJP – led government to “destabilise the entire opposition”, said Pawar.

“Whenever people in Maharashtra or in the country bring in a change (in the government), whatever amendments that have been made have to be changed (reversed)“, Pawar further said.

TMC MP Saket Gokhale too highlighted on this occasion that under the PMLA, an accused has to prove innocence rather than the investigating agency proving that he or she is guilty. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said India is a federal country and the Centre and states possess equal rights. If the Centre can use agencies like Enforcement Directorate, CBI and Income Tax and laws like the PMLA, then states too should to be empowered to use them, he said.

When Chief Ministers like Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand) can be arrested by central agencies and top officials like a director general of police and state chief secretary are summoned by the CBI, how can officials function with strings being pulled by the Centre, he asked.

Team Maverick