The CBI has searched the premises of an assistant director of the ED in Shimla, who managed to give a slip to the agency during a trap operation on Sunday and escaped, officials said.
The assistant director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) posted at Shimla and his brother Vikas Deep, a senior manager in the Punjab National Bank in Delhi, had allegedly gone to Chandigarh to receive bribe money from a businessman, who is facing a case lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The businessman filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about alleged extortion, based on which the Chandigarh unit of the agency planned the trap operation where the complainant was asked to give a bribe of Rs 55 lakh in cash to the officer with CBI sleuths keeping an eye, the officials said.
It was planned that the CBI would nab the accused after the bribe was allegedly received by him, they said.
The ED officer, who is on deputation from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), got alerted during the operation and allegedly fled the spot with the cash, the officials said.
The agency has been trying to locate him for six days. It has even launched technical surveillance to pin-point his location but to no avail.
So far, cash amounting to around Rs 1 crore, including the bribe amount, has been recovered, they added.
The car used by the absconding officer to escape was also located at the ED office, the officials said.
The CBI has arrested Vikas Deep in connection with the case and produced him before a court, they said.
The agency is questioning him regarding his alleged involvement in the case.
Sources in the ED said the accused assistant director of its Shimla sub-zonal office and his supervisory officers -- a deputy director and the joint director (based in Chandigarh) -- have been transferred to Delhi following the case.
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