DVAC-ED standoff: 'Dashcam' has footage of ED officer Ankit getting cash bag, TN govt top doctor

CHENNAI: The Chief Civil Surgeon at Dindigul Government Hospital, Dr. T Sureshbabu whose complaint to the DVAC (Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption) about the bribery demand by arrested ED official, Ankit Tiwari has told the investigators that he has footage from 'dashboard camera' in his car to prove his meeting with the ED officer to hand over the first instalment of Rs 20 lakh.

The arrest of the ED official by Tamil Nadu Police comes at a time when the Central agency is bullish on the state government officials over earnings from illegal sand mining in the State.

Incidentally, the arrested officer Ankit Tiwari had also allegedly told Dr Sureshbabu that he was busy with enquiries regarding the illegal sand-ming case during one of their WhatsApp calls.

According to Dr Sureshbabu's complaint to the DVAC, he was demanded a bribe of Rs 50 lakh by the accused, Ankit Tiwari, who had contacted the doctor through a WhatsApp call in the fag end of October.

The doctor already faces a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case registered by the DVAC in 2018, and the ED official had summoned the doctor to appear before their office in Madurai for further enquiry in the case.

Initially, a bribe of Rs 3 crore was demanded for him to stop pursuing the case and the amount was eventually reduced to Rs 50 lakh. While Dr. Suresh Babu paid the first instalment amount of Rs 20 lakh on November 1, he approached the DVAC as the ED official kept on pestering him to pay the remaining amount, failing which he threatened to shame him by leaking information to the media.

According to Dr Suresh Babu, the video footage of his car driver taking the cash bag from the car and keeping it in the trunk of Ankit's car is recorded on his dashcam.

"For the second instalment, the official asked me whether I knew any Hawala agents when I told him about him by inhibition to hold onto Rs 20 lakh cash for a long time during a WhatsApp call on November 21. I told him I don't know about any Hawala agents," according to the DVAC FIR (First Information Report).

Ankit had also threatened the doctor to not share information about their conversations, citing the raids across the state at that time by the Enforcement Directorate.

The ED official, Ankit Tiwari was caught red-handed while he accepted the bribe on Friday. He was remanded to 15 days judicial custody by a magistrate in Dindigul on Friday night.

The standoff between the DVAC and ED has triggered a political outrage.