The Congress on Saturday took a jibe at the ruling BJP over the arrest of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) official for allegedly accepting bribe. Terming the ED “one of BJP’s superstar campaigners,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh  accused the Narendra Modi government of turning the central probe agency into “political tools” to harrass the Opposition.

“One of the superstar campaigners of the BJP has stumbled yet again, this time in Tamil Nadu. Weeks after an ED official was caught with a ₹15 lakhs bribe in Rajasthan, another official of the ED was caught red-handed with ₹20 lakhs for extortion and bribery,” Ramesh wrote on X.

“The Modi government has completely damaged the reputation of ED/CBI/IT by turning them into political tools to harass and intimidate the Opposition and anyone who questions the government. Now its officers are running their own mini extortion rackets,” he added.

The remarks came in the backdrop of the arrest of Ankit Tiwari, an ED official after he was caught red-handed while accepting bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a government doctor for settling a case filed against him.

This comes a month after another ED officer was arrested in Rajasthan for taking bribe of Rs 15 lakh.

The Opposition accuses the central government of using the probe agency as it’s proxy to settle political scores. The ED has also booked a number of Opposition leaders, including AAP’s Manish Sisodia, Congress party’s Govind Singh Dotasara and TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee.

The DMK, a Congress and ruling party of Tamil Nadu, has also slammed the Centre for damaging the reputation of the probe agency. The DMK asked whether ED stood for “Extortion Department”.

Meanwhile, the BJP has defended the central probe agency, saying that it should not be blamed for the actions of one individual.

“This is not the first time and this isn’t the last time either. Earlier too, many have been caught and arrested from specialized agencies like CBI and ED in states like Rajasthan, West Bengal and Delhi. Recently, a similar incident happened in Rajasthan…We can’t blame the ED for a single individual’s mistake,” BJP leader K Annamalai said, reported ANI.