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CBI catches up with fugitive Ashok Aggarwal

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The Central Bureau of Investigation yesterday arrested former deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate Ashok Kumar Aggarwal, an officer of the Indian Revenue Service, 1985 batch, who has allegedly amassed more than Rs 2500 million by blackmailing leading industrialists of north India.

Aggarwal's interrogation is expected to open a Pandora's box, as several politicians, senior bureaucrats, some highly placed journalists in both the print and electronic media, and other high-profile socialites have had close links with Aggarwal.

According to sources in the CBI and Enforcement Directorate and former colleagues of Aggarwal, the case could even dwarf last year's Romesh Sharma case, in which Dawood Ibrahim's agent in Delhi was found to have been running a huge extortion ring under the patronage of several politicians and bureaucrats.

Opposing the anticipatory bail application moved by Aggarwal in a Delhi sessions court, the CBI on December 17 officially claimed that he had amassed about Rs 1500 million, most of it stashed away in foreign countries through his non-resident businessman father.

Aggarwal's scandal came to light with the arrest of Abhishek Verma, son of Rajya Sabha MP Veena Varma and a jet-setting Delhi socialite, for trying to trap a Delhi jeweller, Subhash Barjatya, in a FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) case. Barjatya had assisted Verma's estranged wife, who now claims to having been threatened by Verma.

The CBI arrested Aggarwal yesterday from the Taj Hotel at Saharanpur, where he had checked in under a pseudonym, ending a nationwide hunt launched after Verma named him as his partner in crime and after Aggarwal's attempts to extort Rs 10 million from one of the owners of Dabur Industries. The Dabur man had videotaped Aggarwal's cronies collecting the money. Aggarwal had to return it.

Abhishek Verma, toast of the Delhi glitterati and the man who was featured on the cover of India Today as the face of young Indian millionaires with a trendy lifestyle, has also named Sonia Gandhi's powerful secretary Vincent George among Delhi's mighty ones who received favours from him. Verma and Aggarwal together were a deadly team with their vast reach in political, bureaucratic, journalistic and social circuits.

Verma, who wears only Armani suits and drives around in Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars, is in judicial custody in Tihar Jail. He was arrested last week, a couple of days after he was toasted at a party by the glitterati.

The CBI got onto Aggarwal's trail after Verma's statements and the Dabur investigation. After several wild goose chases, CBI agents and the Delhi police finally arrested him from the Taj Hotel at Ghantaghar in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, at 1230 IST yesterday. He had been absconding since December 1. He was produced before a local court and a transit remand was obtained to bring him back to Delhi.

Cases against Aggarwal include criminal complaints of wrongful confinement, fabrication of evidence, demand and acceptance of illegal gratification, and forgery. The CBI is also investigating his assets. He is believed to own about 20 flats and bungalows in Delhi, at least two commercial office premises in World Trade Tower, New Delhi, and numerous other properties.

His reign of corruption began soon after he joined the revenue department in the mid-80s. Despite several complaints against him, Aggarwal was appointed private secretary by Balram Singh Yadav, minister for mines in the P V Narasimha Rao government. There he is believed to have played a key role in the Bailadila mines scandal in Madhya Pradesh, which ultimately led to the mysterious death of an Indian Administrative Service officer.

The extortion racket, however, began at the Enforcement Directorate, where he was posted as deputy director, Delhi, a few years back. From day one, he refused to toe the aggressive line of then director M K Bezbaruah, who was aggressively pushing cases against ITC, Bennett, Coleman & Company, and other industrial groups.

Instead, Aggarwal started compiling a list of the industrialists in Delhi, Jalandhar and Jaipur, the areas in his jurisdiction. He then began calling them up late at night and at other odd hours. Threatening to slap FERA cases on them, he would demand huge payments, mostly in liquid cash.

He collected tens of millions of rupees through similar operations, and it is believed that leading industrialists were victims of this racket.

When the FERA case involving a late media baron was going on, Bezbaruah's attempt to take an uncompromising stand is believed to have been scuttled by a strong lobby of politicians, some bureaucrats and journalists. Aggarwal was their frontman who slowed down the case from within the directorate.

One officer, who was secretary in an important economic ministry and is now in the PMO, refused to permit Bezbaruah to transfer Aggarwal out. Towards the end of Bezbaruah's controversial tenure, the IRS officer is even believed to have planted stories in dailies and a leading national English weekly against his boss.

Aggarwal always used to go out of his way to entertain journalists. A CBI source said he is also believed to have helped at least a couple of electronic media houses in FERA cases. He also reportedly assisted so-called godman Chandraswami in obtaining court permission to go out of India even when several criminal cases were pending against him. While the CBI had opposed the request, Aggarwal gave a note that the directorate was not against it.

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