ED officer who arrested 2 CMs, resigns from service
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Kapil Raj, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, has resigned from government service after serving for about 16 years. The 45-year-old officer belonged to the 2009 batch of the IRS.
An order issued by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday said, “President of India was pleased to accept his resignation from the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Indirect Taxes) with effect from July 17,” PTI reported.
According to the report, the former IRS officer cited "personal reasons" for stepping down from service, even though he still had around 15 years left given that the age of superannuation is 60.
Kapil Raj, who previously served with the Enforcement Directorate (ED), is known for overseeing the arrests of two sitting chief ministers under the anti-money laundering act. He spent around eight years with the ED and had just concluded his deputation there, Indian Express reported.
At the time of his resignation, he was serving as an Additional Commissioner in the GST Intelligence unit in Delhi, PTI reported. A BTech graduate in Electronics, Raj hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
One of the high-profile cases he handled was the arrest of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in January of the previous year, in connection with an alleged land scam.
Soren had submitted his resignation to the Governor at Raj Bhavan before being taken into custody by the ED. Kapil Raj was present at the meeting and led the team that later arrested him, according to PTI.
In March, he visited the Flag Staff Road residence of then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches at his official bungalow. Kejriwal was arrested on March 21, and Raj was present during the preparation and serving of the arrest memo to the AAP leader.
As per PTI, Raj was actively involved in preparing and reviewing the questionnaires used during the interrogation of high-profile political detainees. He was also known for personally visiting raid sites to oversee operations and motivate his teams.
During his tenure in Mumbai, Raj handled several major money laundering investigations, including cases involving fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, as well as probes related to DHFL and underworld figure Iqbal Mirchi.
