Former Enforcement Directorate joint director J P Singh and three others, who were held on Tuesday, were arrested for trying to dilute the probe into the IPL spot-fixing scandal, it has been learnt
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Former Enforcement Directorate joint director J P Singh and three others, who were held on Tuesday, were arrested for trying to dilute the probe into the IPL spot-fixing scandal, it has been learnt.
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According to a report in Times of India, Singh, Singh suspended from the ED after the CBI registered a case against him in September 2015. The others held along with Singh were his then deputy Sanjay Kumar, Mumbai-based middleman Bimal Agrawal and Gujarat-based bookie Chandresh Patel.
The report further added that an internal probe by present ED chief Karnal Singh revealed that Singh and Kumar were indulging in massive corruption. Apparently, they asked many bookies and hawala dealers to pay them in crores to avoid being arrested. Following their investigation, ED then approached the CBI.
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The report further quoted sources as saying that Singh, through his conduits, managed to extort bribes in crores from many bookies, who were on the ED scanner under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Singh is actually suspected to have taken around Rs 10 crore in bribe from bookies and hawala dealers. This apparently happened when a team, which was led by him in the ED's Ahmedabad unit, was investigating the Rs 2,000 crore IPL betting scandal as well as the Rs 5,000 crore money laundering case against alleged hawala operator Afroz Fatta.
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The report revealed that the bribes weren’t received directly, but through 'conduits’ like Bimal Agarwal and Patel. They fixed meetings with suspects to collect the money on their behalf. Agarwal has five criminal cases registered against him and is known to be close to cops and bureaucrats.
A case was registered against Singh back in 2015, after which the CBI had conducted raids in Mumbai, Delhi and other places. His father-in-law, S K S Somvanshi, a retired IRS officer, was also raided since it was suspected that Singh's conduits used to give the illegal money to him.