Exclusive: Can't Read the Room, Can't Cut the Cord: Anurag's Special CP Dependency Deepens as EOW Crumbles?
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police is having a moment it would rather not have. The Supreme Court's recent observations are being discussed in the corridors of power. Top sources said recent cases handled by EOW have pulled back the curtain on what insiders now openly call a "state of mess,"an agency struggling with the very forensic sophistication that modern financial crime demands. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had flagged serious allegations of financial fraud, but the EOW surprisingly gave a clean chit in a case. Top sources said that where a specialized agency like ED can see some glaring red flags, how can EOW see none?
As top sources point out, divergent conclusions between agencies aren't inherently alarming; that happens. What raises eyebrows is that an agency like the ED takes general precedence over a state's investigating agency, as the former is more specialized and the latter remains a generalist, but extreme divergences and problems in the basics are alarming, where such an extreme, clean-chit position was recently taken against a specialized agency's firm findings of fraud, top sources said.
Top sources were blunt: the Supreme Court's observations and recent EOW investigations leave no room for a free pass; EOW's investigation quality and professionalism must face a hard reckoning, and so must anyone shielding it.
A troubling pattern
A Delhi court, in a separate corporate fraud matter involving forged bank guarantees, declared the EOW's arrest "illegal." Top sources add that EOW has, in recent years, suffered serious defeats in court,what sources describe as the EOW's core problem: cases are either shut down prematurely or dragged forward without direction, with little in between.
The Capacity Question
Behind the courtroom drama lies a more mundane, and arguably more damaging, reality: the EOW is chronically understaffed and structurally under-equipped to handle the complexity of the crimes it's meant to investigate.
Top sources point to large-scale vacancies at the supervisory level, well over 150 Assistant Commissioner of Police posts and a significant number of Deputy Commissioner positions lying unfilled
Delhi Police did try to course-correct back in 2021, bringing in economic and financial experts to bolster the Wing's forensic muscle. But by most internal accounts, that intervention hasn't moved the needle much.
As one source put it bluntly: “Modern financial crimes depend heavily on complex shell networks, multi-jurisdictional transfers, and systemic round-tripping. The EOW has repeatedly shown that it struggles to unpack these arrangements.” The consequence isn't confined to the EOW's own case files;it spills over onto the ED and CBI, who increasingly find themselves having to redo work, or start investigations the EOW should have carried further. That is, in effect, the price other agencies pay for the Wing's capacity gap.
Muscle Over Method
Perhaps the sharpest internal criticism concerns approach, not just resources: a tendency to lean on coercive tactics, arrests, custody applications, and pressure rather than on patient, evidence-driven financial forensics. In a domain where success depends on tracing paper trails across jurisdictions, reconstructing round-tripped funds, and building airtight documentary evidence, coercion is a poor substitute for competence. Courts have been signaling this for a while, top sources said
New Commissioner's Gamble
All this is unfolding just as Delhi Police navigates a leadership transition. Barely a month before having to steer the force through the security and coordination demands of the 18th BRICS Summit, scheduled for September 12–13 in New Delhi. Delhi Police carried out its first major reshuffle under the new commissioner, but top sources suggest the reshuffle didn't go as far as some expected: efforts to reposition certain batchmates reportedly remain slowed, with at least one Special CP said to be resistant to ceding influence over key divisions, and one is still influencing Delhi Police's top brass's decision-making capacity. Whether that internal tug-of-war is delaying the kind of structural reset the EOW badly needs is a question hanging over the force even as it must present its best face for a global summit next month.
As top sources in power corridors summed it up: coercion is not a substitute for professionalism, and right now, the EOW's credibility depends on proving it understands the difference.
Whatever may be the case, one argument which is debatable in power corridors for Anurag: "The 'new turf' argument is fair for an outsider,but outside commissioners never needed a crutch to make decisions. So why does a home-cadre Commissioner, who's supposed to know every corner of this force, suddenly need one?"
