Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau arrests chartered accountant in ‘ED-linked’ bribery trap case in Kerala

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has arrested three persons, including a Kochi-based Chartered Accountant, Renjith Warrier, for allegedly demanding a significant bribe from a cashew factory owner to stave off an Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation.

According to the VACB, the ED summoned the businessperson to its office in Kochi in 2024. The agency accused the factory owner of misrepresenting his turnover and funnelling his profits abroad through a network of secret bank accounts, thereby violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) provisions. 

The businessperson, a native of Kottarakara in Kollam district, told VACB sleuths that the ED officials had ordered him to produce records of decades-old financial transactions and account books. 

According to VACB, Wilson, a resident of Thammanam in Ernakulam district, approached the businessperson and introduced himself as an “ED agent”.

Mr. Wilson allegedly claimed he could make the “ED investigation go away”, provided the entrepreneur transferred ₹2 crore into a bank account in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in four deferred payments. 

The VACB stated that Mr. Wilson contacted the businessperson numerous times on the latter’s mobile phone. Investigators claimed that Mr. Wilson told the entrepreneur he could prove his credentials as a middle-man for the agency by sending the latter a second ED summons.

Consequently, as if on cue, the businessperson received a second summons from the ED on May 14, 2025. 

Subsequently, Mr. Wilson contacted the businessperson over the phone and demanded an upfront payment of ₹2 lakh in cash. He demanded that the entrepreneur deliver the money at a location in Panampally Nagar at 3.30 p.m. on May 15, 2025. 

Vigilance trap

The entrepreneur approached the Deputy Superintendent of Police, VACB, Ernakulam, and registered a complaint. 

Subsequently, the VACB registered a first information report (FIR), sourcing the bribe amount in currency from a nationalised bank. Investigators treated the notes with phenolphthalein, a white powder that turns pink when it comes into contact with water, and sprung a trap.

The VACB requisitioned the services of a government official from a different department as an independent witness and covered the location with plainclothes officers tasked with covertly recording the operation. 

The businessperson arrived at the rendezvous spot on time and handed over the chemically-treated notes, which he had received from the VACB to Wilson. 

Immediately, VACB officials surrounded Mr. Wilson, who had reached the spot in an expensive car and retrieved the marked notes from his possession. Officials said his fingers turned pink when they asked him to dip his hands in a beaker of water. 

Covert operation

VACB officials stated that they kept Mr. Wilson’s arrest confidential, given the depth and legal implications of the case. Based on Mr. Wilson’s questioning, the VACB arrested Murali Mukesh, a resident of Rajasthan.

The agency claimed that the suspects revealed Mr. Warrier’s alleged role in the “well-entrenched” extortion racket and arrested him from the chartered accountant’s residence at Variyam Road in Kochi early Saturday.

ED under the scanner

The VACB said the anti-corruption probe would extend to certain top ED officials. “The issuance of the second summons to the businessperson, as if on a cue from Wilson, has put some officials in the ED under the VACB’s scanner,” he said.

The VACB stated that the investigation was progressing quickly and would soon submit a report to the court of the Vigilance Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Kochi. 

Director General of Police, VACB, Manoj Abraham, and SP, VACB, Kochi unit, S. Sasidharan, supervised the “spot trap” operation.