ED Director's tenure curtailed; Karnal Singh gets additional

Government today cut short the tenure Rajan S Katoch at the helm of Enforcement Directorate and gave additional charge of the post of the Director to Special Director Karnal Singh for three months.
Katoch, whose tenure was till October 31, was stripped of the charge of additional charge of ED Director by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet.
In a brief order tonight, the Department of Personnel said in an order that "the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved assigning additional charge of the post of Enforcement Director to Singh, a 1984 batch IPS officer of union territory cadre, for a period of three months or till appointment of a regular incumbent."

The order comes close on the heels of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy recently writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking appointment of a full-time Director for the central probe agency complaining that it had not properly investigated National Herald case in which he has accused of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul for alleged money Laundering.
Official sources said that a departmental inquiry was likely to be initiated against the Joint Director who had conveyed to the Revenue Secretary that no case was made out against the Gandhis.
Katoch was handling the top ED charge in an additional capacity since August 2014 after he was promoted and appointed as the Heavy Industries Secretary.

The fresh government order comes two weeks after the Centre had cleared the name of Katoch, a 1979-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, for a third extension as Director for three more months after July 31.
Singh is now working as Special Director, Centre Region in ED, under the Department of Revenue.
The agency is mandated to enforce two of the most stringent laws in the country -- Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to check black money and hawala trade cases.