New Delhi: Three Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers have been promoted as Special Directors, according to an official order issued on Wednesday.
Satyabrata Kumar, a 2004-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre, has been appointed as the Special Director for the western region of the agency, while 2002-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sonia Narang has been appointed in the same rank and she will look after the central region and the special task force (STF) of the ED.
Monika Sharma, a 2003-batch IRS officer of the Income Tax cadre, has been appointed as the Special Director and she will head the headquarters investigation unit-1, adjudication, systems and training wings.
Special Director (SD) is the second highest post in the agency after the Director, who heads the agency. The agency has a total of nine SD posts and with these appointments, one vacancy remains.
All the three officers, promoted as SD, have been serving in the ED as additional directors till now with Kumar heading the Mumbai zonal office-1, Narang heading the Delhi zonal office-1 and Sharma heading the headquarters investigation unit-1.
Kumar has been leading the probe into major financial crimes being undertaken by the agency in Mumbai including the action against alleged bank loan defaulters such as liquor baron Vijay Mallya and diamond merchant Nirav Modi.
Narang has been heading the money laundering investigation against the Popular Front of India (PFI), banned recently by the Union government, and against a number of Maoist cadres.
Sharma has been supervising important money laundering investigations in Delhi including in the National Herald case against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders.
The agency also issued an administrative order appointing various other officers to head various regions and charges across the country.
The ED functions under the Union Finance Ministry and it enforces the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act that was brought by the Narendra Modi government in 2018, and the civil sections of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
