NEW DELHI: A bugbear for many opposition leaders, one of the longest serving Enforcement Directorate (ED) chiefs Sanjay Mishra has been summoned by the government again -- this time as a full-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.
Mishra, a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, excelled in matters relating to income tax. This drew the attention of former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who brought him to the ministry as his private secretary soon after the NDA government came to power in 2014.
His proximity to Jaitley earned him a position in the all-powerful Enforcement Directorate as its chief. Initially, he was given charge as an interim arrangement for three months in October 2018, but subsequently he was made full-time director.
In bureaucratic circles, Mishra is credited with investigating several high-profile income tax cases, while being posted in the Delhi circle. He also held the position of chief commissioner of Income Tax in Delhi before moving to the ED.
Mishra hogged the limelight as under him, the ED, which enforces the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), launched an aggressive probe against several high-profile politicians and dignitaries, including the Congress' Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra.
It also initiated action against Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah.
During his tenure as the ED chief, the agency got approval for the extradition of fugitives such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. The agency had also arrested persons accused of money laundering such as former Yes Bank managing director and chief executive officer Rana Kapoor and ICICI Bank former MD-CEO Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar under Mishra’s stewardship.
Mishra’s tenure as the ED chief came to an end in September 2023 after the Supreme Court's intervention. Earlier, in an order issued on November 13, 2020, the government had modified his appointment letter retrospectively and replaced his term with three years.
On November 17, 2021, the government again extended his tenure for a period of one year till November 18, 2022. The extension came days after the government introduced an ordinance that allowed the directors of ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to occupy the office for up to five years. On November 18, 2022, the Centre again extended Mishra’s tenure till November 18, 2023.
Soon after the ordinance was brought in, a series of petitions were filed before the Supreme Court by Congress and TMC functionaries like Randeep Singh Surjewala and Saket Gokhale, challenging the amendments.
However, the government had told the Supreme Court that it had extended Mishra's tenure in public interest as various cases were at a crucial juncture and required proper and expeditious disposal for which it was necessary to ensure the continuity of officers. It also defended its decision to extend Mishra’s tenure in the ED on the grounds that India's evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was still pending. Under the FATF, a country’s systems and processes aimed at combating money laundering and terror financing are evaluated by peer countries for implementation and effectiveness.
Born in a middle class family in Lucknow, Mishra’s first posting was in Gorakhpur as assistant director in the Income Tax department. Besides taxation, he has a keen interest in understanding the nexus between politics and business, as well as matters related to economics and foreign currency.