2 ED officials booked for extorting Rs 2.25 crore from businessman

Mumbai Police have booked two Enforcement Directorate officials for allegedly threatening a Mumbai-based businessman with a money laundering investigation and extorting Rs 2.25 crore from him, officials said. The two officers, posted at the federal agency's Jaipur office, have been named in an FIR registered on August 31 at Bangar Nagar Police station.

The FIR names Assistant Director Mohit Garg, 36, and Enforcement Officer Devendra Kumar Gupta, 35. They have been charged under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita with extortion, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.

According to the FIR, the ED's Mumbai office sent a complaint to the police after the businessman, who promotes an Information Technology company, informed the agency about the alleged intimidation and extortion by the two officers. Officials said the ED has also registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the matter after taking cognisance of the police FIR, and has carried out searches and "examined" the complainant.

The FIR states that the two officials went to the businessman's office in Mumbai's Malad West area on July 20. They initially told him they wanted to conduct a survey, but later accused him of dealing in certain "proceeds of crime".

The complaint alleged that the officers threatened to turn the survey into a full raid or search. It said they offered to "settle" the matter for Rs 5 crore, and the amount was later brought down to Rs 2.25 crore.

The businessman told the police that he paid Rs 2.25 crore in two tranches, but later found there was no case against him as he was not given any document to support the allegations made against him. The case centres on these allegations, with Mumbai Police and the ED both taking action in the matter.