The Madras High Court in the case Ankit Tiwari v State observed and has rejected the bail to Enforcement Directorate Officer Ankit Tiwari who was being arrested by the Tamil Nadu Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Wing for allegedly collecting an amount of Rs 20 lakh bribe from a government doctor by threatening to reopen a case against him. The bench headed by Justice V Sivagnanam in the case observed and has dismissed the bail petition moved by the officer. In the present case, Ankit was arrested earlier this month by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption. It has been alleged by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, DVAC that Ankit had demanded a sum of 3 crore rupees from one Dr Suresh Babu as a bribe to close the pending case against him and later scaled down the demand to Rs. 51 Lakh. The corut stated that out of this, Rs. 20 Lakh was allegedly paid on November 1, 2023, and it was alleged before the court that Tiwari had continued to demand the balance amount from the de-facto complainant Babu, which led to him filing the complaint and the Tiwari’s subsequent arrest. It has been argued by Tiwari before the court that as per Section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, an officer could be arrested only for doing or forbearing to do any official act or forbearing from doing something in the exercise of an official position to favour someone. He also submitted before the court that no case had been registered against the doctor nor any case was pending against him. Thus, he claimed that the initiation of criminal prosecution case was with mala fides. On the other hand, the State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah while challenging the bail petition submitted before the court that Ankit was arrested with due evidence and it has been informed by the prosecute that several top officials of the Enforcement Directorate were involved in the bribery case and only further investigation could bring out more details. It has been informed by the prosecution to the court that a crucial document was seized from Tiwari which contained details of 75 persons involved in the bribery case and it needed to be further investigated. Thus, it was also informed that steps have been taken to examine the cell phone, laptop and other documents seized from Tiwari’s residence and office. The court was informed that the voice recording and the video recording seized from the dashboard of the car showing Tiwari taking a bribe had to be analysed. Therefore, the prosecution contended that granting bail would hamper the investigation, while claiming that enforcement officials were trying to protect Tiwari.
