Satyabrata Kumar, former Special Director of the ED and the lead investigator in some of the most high-profile money laundering cases including those against Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and online betting app Mahadev, has voluntarily retired from service (VRS).
The 2004 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Customs and Indirect Excise cadre has been appointed as Commissioner (Appeals) of Siliguri in West Bengal after being repatriated from the Excise Directorate, exactly a year ago.
He has served in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for nearly 12 years, making him one of the longest serving officers in the agency.
According to officials, the 48-year-old Kumar received the Union government’s nod to proceed with the RS in April and formal orders in this regard were issued earlier this month.
The officer — scheduled to retire in 2037 — had about 11 years of government service until he reached the retirement age of 60, officials said.
Sources told PTI that Kumar left government service to pursue his personal pursuits.
Kumar has led investigations into several high-profile probes by the Mumbai-based Western Regional Office of the DED, including the alleged US$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 “sensitive” cases involving several politicians in Maharashtra.
He was instrumental in booking several foreign assets worth crores, which are considered proceeds of crime, in the PNB fraud case.
The Western Regional Office of the Kumar-led ED also investigated the Mahadev betting app case in which links with several Chhattisgarh-based politicians and businessmen emerged.
This is the second time in less than a year that an officer has resigned from government service shortly after leaving the emergency department.
In July 2025, Kapil Raj, the former joint director of the ED who oversaw the arrests of two prime ministers — Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal — in separate money laundering cases, resigned from service 15 years before his scheduled retirement.
He belonged to the 2009 batch of the IRS (Customs and Indirect Taxes) and worked in the directorate for eight years. Raj resigned from service when he was appointed Additional Commissioner in GST Intelligence Wing in Delhi.
