Who Is Sanjay Mishra, The ED Chief Known For Sending 15 Big Politicians To Jail?

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held as "illegal" two notifications by the Centre granting extension of service, for one year each time, to Indian Revenue Service officer Sanjay Kumar Mishra as the chief of the Enforcement Directorate.

As a result, Mishra's tenure as the director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will come to an end on July 31. He was otherwise to remain in office till November 18, 2023, according to the notification issued by the government.

Who is Sanjay Mishra?
The 1984-batch IRS officer was first appointed the director of the ED for two years on November 19, 2018. Later, by an order dated November 13, 2020, the central government modified the appointment letter retrospectively and his two-year term was changed to three years.

He is originally from Uttar Pradesh. An economic expert, he had solved many big cases in the IT department brilliantly due to which he was appointed the chief of the ED, according to a report in CNBC.

During his five-year term in the ED, approximately 15 high-ranking politicians and government officials faced imprisonment, including notable figures such as former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Manish Sisodia, the former deputy chief minister of Delhi, Farooq Abdullah, the ex-chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Senthil Balaji, a prominent minister from Tamil Nadu, Partha Chatterjee, a senior minister from Bengal, as well as more than a dozen Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers.

He is considered to be the most efficient among the chiefs of the central agencies and closest to the PMO, according to a report in News18. Those who worked with him have said that has "delivered justice" to many politicians, bureaucrats, and fraudulent corporates.

He turned the ED into the fiercest central agency which made him the most "loyal and efficient" to the people who matter, the officer told the website.

India has rarely witnessed a high-profile politician getting arrested after Lalu Prasad Yadav's arrest. However, the ED worked like never before after Mishra occupied the top post.

181 Politicians
181 out of 726 cases are related to politicians, a top official said. According to the official, there are currently 191 significant cases being tried that are connected to large-scale scams, political or bureaucratic corruption, bank fraud, or money laundering.

Although the Opposition targeted him as "Modi's man" for alleged intimidation and breaking parties, he remain a ruthless professional for his peers and juniors.