An ED circular (no 18/2012) showed that Ojha, however, enjoyed supervision on sensitive cases.
Two top officials of Enforcement Directorate — Sajjad Wasi Naqvi, special director (western region), and Virendra Ojha, additional director (western region), have been relieved of their duties on the orders of the Union finance ministry, effective December 30, 2015.
dna had reported how the central government was concerned with the ongoing investigations under the duo's supervision and that they were both being sent to their parent departments.
In an email response to dna, Ojha claimed the high profile cases —such as forex violation by IPL teams like KKR and Mumbai Indians, Lalit Modi deportation, betting scam, Maharashtra Sadan scam and Louis Berger Goa scam were all handled by the investigating officer concerned and joint director alone.
An ED circular (no 18/2012) showed that Ojha, however, enjoyed supervision on sensitive cases.
As per dna's earlier report, there have been concerns about the duo's alleged involvement in orchestrating complaints against JP Singh, a 2000 batch IRS officer at the Custom & Excise Wing, who investigated the infamous hawala case, involving Mohammed Afroz Fatta, an alleged hawala dealer operating in Mumbai and Surat.
Ojha claimed in his response, "The organisation at regional and zone level cannot interact with CBI with respect to action against any of the officers. We have nothing to do with the CBI action against Singh."
Finance ministry sources, however, told dna that the two officers visited Surat and Ahmedabad and reviewed both the Fatta case and the betting case on September 19 and 20, 2015 (Saturday & Sunday).
Ojha had also tried to shift blame entirely on to his bosses in his mail to dna, "As additional director, my job is to act on directions issued by the director and special director".
The earlier dna story said the ministry was upset over how Mumbai ED was "going slow" on high-profile cases such as Lalit Modi deportation and the IPL share sales (including Shah Rukh Khan, KKR, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals) since 2009.
It was also reported that the eight companies connected to the Rs20,000crore UCO Bank fraud transferred the money out of the country through Afroz Fatta and his network. The preliminary investigation of UCO Bank and linking it to Afroz Fatta was done under the supervision of Ojha. Later, the case was transferred to Ahmadabad as all the concerned kingpins in the case were Gujarat-based. JP Singh was made the in-charge of the investigation of the hawala case. Fatta was subsequently charge-sheeted.Ojha, however, claimed that he has no
Ojha, however, claimed that he has no connection with the Ahmadabad case and that it is in the domain of CBI. "Llinking with Ahmadabad bribery case, even remotely at any way, may amount to defaming us who are known for impeccable record and work ethics," he wrote in his response.
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