Jaitley awards Enforcement Directorate officers

Among the awardees of the Director's commendation for outstanding performance was Deputy Director (DD) Satyendra Singh who is also an investigating officer in the 2G spectrum allocation PMLA case, being monitored by the Supreme Court.

Singh, who has served in the Enforcement Directorate for 34 years now, has also probed cases under the now repealed Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The officer, who hails from Jaipur, had remained undercover for a week in the Chandni Chowk area of the national capital as part of an operation to nab 'hawala' operators.

Similarly, JP Singh was awarded by Jaitley for result-oriented probes in narcotics cases apart from few investigations.

The minister also awarded two sepoys of the agency Manbar Singh and AH Bazaz.

Bazaz, posted in Jammu and Kashmir, had saved many office records and files when the floods hit the Kashmir valley in 2014.

The central probe agency came into being in May, 1956 and is entrusted with enforcing two major laws aimed at checking money laundering and financial crimes-- the FEMA and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, under the Finance Ministry's Department of Revenue.

It has a very small staff strength as against the total 2,064 sanctioned posts, it only has 897 staffers in its ranks as of now.