6-member Mumbai police team starts probe in extortion allegations against ED officers

We have given the SIT the time required to probe the matter, he told reporters.Raut had alleged in a press conference last month that some ED officers were acting as an ATM for the BJP, which heads the government at the Centre, but sits in the opposition in Maharashtra, where a Shiv Sena-led coalition is in power.The Sena leader had also said the Mumbai police were probing extortion charges against four officers of the central agency and some of them will go to jail.

A six-member special team of the Mumbai police led by an IPS officer has started a probe into extortion allegations levelled against some Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, an official said on Tuesday.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Veeresh Prabhu, a 2005-batch IPS officer, is heading the team, which also comprises a DCP, an ACP, two inspectors and one assistant inspector, the official said.

The probe team has collected all relevant documents from the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), he said.

The EOW had in the past recorded statements of five persons in connection with the case, the official said, adding a few more people have been summoned to give their statements.

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the allegations of extortion raised against some ED officers by Raut. “We have given the SIT the time required to probe the matter,” he told reporters.

Raut had alleged in a press conference last month that some ED officers were acting as an “ATM” for the BJP, which heads the government at the Centre, but sits in the opposition in Maharashtra, where a Shiv Sena-led coalition is in power.

The Sena leader had also said the Mumbai police were probing extortion charges against four officers of the central agency and some of them will go to jail. The Rajya Sabha MP, however, didn't reveal any names while making the extortion allegations.

“In the last few years, some ED officials and agents have been involved in extortion, threatening builders and corporates. I have passed on this information to the prime minister,” Raut had said.

The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government also comprises the NCP and the Congress.

Notably, the announcement of the SIT came against the backdrop of reports that Shiv Sena leadership felt the NCP, which handles the home department, was going ''soft'' on the BJP. PTI DC ENM NSK RSY RSY