ED officer named Key, which was accused in 2 CRORE broom scandal

The office of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) in Ernakulam, Kerala, has appointed Shekhar Kumar, deputy director of the Kochi unit (ed.) The Enforcement Directorates, as the key in a top-class bribe.

The case includes a suspected attempt to blackmail 2 billion GBP of a businessman in collaborating in order to secure his release from an ED examination, according to the investigation report submitted by the VAC before the Muvattupuzha Vigilance.

The vacuum arrested three people in connection with the case: Wilson Varghese (36) from Thamanam and Mukesh Kumar (55) from Rajasthan, followed by Ranjith Warrier, an auditor resident in Kochi.

The investigation report claims that Warrier has shared the details of the businessman with Varghese and facilitated the extortion attempt.

The case comes from a complaint that was submitted by a collam-based businessman who operates a cashew export import company. In 2024, the businessman was called by the Kochi unit of the ED, which was accused of masking accounts for the money laundering mask due to the high sales of its company.

The investigation report states that Kumar, the first defendant, asked for years of the businessman to register and threaten to register and lock him up.

Subsequently contacted the businessman and offered to solve his ED problems for £ 2 crore, supposedly to pay to Kumar. Varghese further demanded that on May 15, 2025 £ 2 Lakh to be handed over in cash.

Alarmed by the demand, the businessman turned to the VACB, who registered a case after the review and set up spiked operation. On May 16, Varghese was arrested near Cross Road 12 in Panampilly Nagar, while he collected the marked currency stands worth 2 LAKH.

During the interrogation, Varghese claimed that he was only a middleman who was under the instructions of Mukesh Kumar, who allegedly gave details of a bank account based in Thane, on which the businessman had already broadcast 50,000 GBP.

Mukesh, which was employed in a household appliance company at JEW Street in Kochi, was arrested and his two mobile phones were confiscated for the exam. The VACB suspects Mukesh to have Hawala connections and to work with ED officials in Kochi to get shady shops.

S. Sasidharan, the superintendent of Ernakulam Vacb, told the media that Kumar was referred to as a accused based on the businessman's statement, but his role still has to be checked to explain why he was not arrested.

The accused was charged according to Section 7a of the Law to prevent corruption