Officer who led ED probes against Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya takes VRS

NEW DELHI: Satyabrata Kumar, former Enforcement Directorate (ED) special director and lead investigator in several high-profile money laundering cases, including those against Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and the Mahadev online betting app, has taken voluntary retirement from service (VRS).A 2004-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre, Kumar was posted as Commissioner (Appeals) in Siliguri, West Bengal, after being repatriated from the ED a year ago.He served in the ED for nearly 12 years, making him one of the longest-serving officers on deputation in the agency.According to officials, the 48-year-old officer was granted approval by the Union government to proceed on VRS in April, and formal orders were issued earlier this month.The officer, who was scheduled to retire in 2037, had about 11 years of service remaining before attaining the superannuation age of 60 years, officials said.Sources told PTI that Kumar left government service to pursue personal pursuits.Kumar led investigations undertaken by the ED’s Mumbai-based western regional office, including the alleged USD 2 billion bank fraud case against diamond traders Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the bank loan fraud case against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, and a number of cases involving Maharashtra politicians.He was instrumental in the attachment of several foreign-based assets worth crores, identified as proceeds of crime, in the PNB fraud case.The ED’s western regional office under Kumar also probed the Mahadev betting app case, in which links to various Chhattisgarh-based politicians and businessmen emerged.This is the second time in less than a year that an officer has resigned from government service soon after leaving the ED.In July 2025, Kapil Raj, a former ED joint director who supervised the arrests of Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal in separate money laundering cases, resigned from service 15 years before his scheduled retirement.Raj belonged to the 2009-batch IRS (Customs and Indirect Taxes) and had served in the ED for eight years.He resigned while serving as additional commissioner in the GST Intelligence wing in Delhi.