Hours after the Supreme Court’s order on Tuesday cancelling the tenure extension of Sanjay Mishra as the director of the ED, union home minister Amit Shah posted a message on Twitter. “Those rejoicing over the Hon’ble SC decision on the ED case are delusional for various reasons,” he wrote. It was a reaction to the celebration by some leaders from the opposition bloc and their posts on social media.
“Powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law remain the same. ED is an institution which rises beyond any one individual and is focused on achieving its core objective – i.e. to investigate offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws,” Shah said. “Thus, who the ED director is – that is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cozy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset.”
Decoding Shah’s tweet
But what does Amit Shah mean by this? News18 spoke to senior officers in the government to understand the message of the union home minister. Apart from motivating the officers, who worked under Mishra, Shah also indicated that the cases against senior politicians and their successors in some national and regional parties will not take a back seat, despite the change in the top leadership of the Enforcement Directorate. There are at least a dozen such cases in which some senior politicians of national and regional parties may be indicted, said sources in the ED.
These include the National Herald corruption case involving Sonia and Rahul Gandhi along with other senior Congress leaders, the coal smuggling case and recruitment scam in West Bengal which found direct or indirect connections with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s heir apparent Abhishek, and the land-for-job scam that has indicted Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar’s deputy chief minister and former CM Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son.
Cases against dynasts on ‘fast track’
The statement by Shah seems to be a veiled warning for those who petitioned before the court for the removal of Mishra from his position. Even though Mishra would demit office on July 31, as directed by the court, the cases he and his team investigated would be on ‘fast track’. The Prime Minister while delivering a speech last month said that all these faces of scams would be brought to justice, said a senior police officer, who is in the know of the situation.
According to sources in the ED, the evidence against the Gandhis in connection with the National Herald corruption case is strong and incriminating, and legal action will be initiated soon. They added that in Bengal’s coal smuggling case, the statements of Abhishek Banerjee, his wife, and his sister-in-law have been recorded and the charge sheet is being prepared.
“We are now working on the charge sheets. There are enough evidences against them. We are now probing deeper to determine the accused and co-accused names in the charge sheets. The CBI is also working in tandem with us,” said a senior officer of the directorate.
In Tejashwi Yadav’s case, the Central Bureau of Investigation has already filed its charge sheet, making him an accused in the scam. The ED is probing the matter and the law will take its course, the officer added.
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