CHANDIGARH: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer Niranjan Singh, who had questioned Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and former Cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia in the high-profile Rs 6,000 crore synthetic drug racket money laundering case on Friday resigned from service. He was allegedly feeling suffocated due to political pressure on him.
Singh who was posted as Deputy Director in the Punjab unit of ED at Jalandhar, tendered his resignation to Jalandhar ED office chief Girish Bali. He had three years of service left as he was scheduled to retire in 2021, but cited personal reasons for his decision to resign from service.
Singh only said that he had resigned due to "personal reasons,” however, sources said he quit as he got frustrated due to the pressure from the headquarters in this drug case probe.
During the investigation of the drug trafficking case in 2015, Singh was transferred to Kolkata in 2015 and asked to investigate 'Sharda Chit Fund Case' of West Bengal. The issue of his transfer reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court which later revoked his transfer.
It was in 2015 the then Revenue minister Majithia who is also the brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal was questioned by Niranjan, Joint Director Girish Bali and Special Director Karnal Singh who had come here from Delhi.
Sources said that after Majithia's questioning local ED officials had reported to their seniors in Delhi that their phones were being tapped by Punjab intelligence and they were trying to know their property details Then some phone numbers from which the calls were made to ED official by the state intelligence sleuths were also made public by ED which had caused a peculiar situation for Punjab Government.
Apart from the drugs money laundering case, the officer was also the main investigating officer in a number of money laundering and forex violations cases in Punjab. He was a recipient of the best investigator award during the 'Enforcement Day' event at the hands of then-president Pranab Mukherjee in 2014 and known as one of the finest brains in the domain of money laundering and foreign exchange violation cases.
Singh remained the Investigating Officer of the drug case from 2013 till 2016
Then he was asked to supervise it following his promotion as Deputy Director in 2016.
The officer has started the investigation of this case in 2013 after registering the case under Money laundering Act.
Property worth over Rs 200 crore of around two dozen accused had been attached till date.