ED officer interrogated by VACB in bribery case

A Directorate of Enforcement (ED) officer booked in a bribery case appeared earlier than the Kochi unit of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) for interrogation on Tuesday.

Shekhar Kumar, assistant director of the Kochi unit of the ED, was interrogated for hours. He was summoned by the VACB after the Kerala High Court granted him anticipatory bail earlier this month.

Mr. Shekhar Kumar turned up on the VACB workplace in Kathrikadavu alongside along with his lawyer at round 10.30 a.m. During the interrogation, which lasted until night, he reportedly denied having demanded a bribe. He additionally claimed that he doesn’t know the opposite two accused – Wilson Varghese and Mukesh Kumar, who had been arrested within the case. The interrogation is more likely to proceed within the coming days, stated VACB sources.

The VACB registered the case and arrested three individuals on the cost of making an attempt to take a bribe of ₹2 crore from a businessperson to allegedly get him off the hook in a an ED case. The case was registered on a grievance by a Kollam-based man who runs a cashew export-import agency. As per the VACB remand report, the ED officer was the important thing accused.

According to the VACB, the businessperson was summoned to the Kochi unit of the ED in 2024 on the grounds that his agency’s turnover was very excessive and that accounts had been solid to masks cash laundering. He was then demanded to provide paperwork relationship again years and was threatened to register a case and imprison him, stated the remand report. Shortly thereafter, the second accused, Wilson, contacted the businessperson with a proposal to kind out his ED hassle by paying ₹2 crore to the primary accused, said the remand report.