New Delhi, Aug. 10 -- The Union government has extended the tenure of Enforcement Directorate (ED) director Rahul Navin by a year beyond August 13, 2027, according to an order issued on Sunday. The extension comes at a time when the federal anti-money laundering probe agency is focusing on restitution of attached properties worth thousands of crores to the victims, and is investigating sensitive financial crimes. "The appointments committee of cabinet has approved extension in tenure of Rahul Navin, IRS, as Director of Enforcement, for a period of one year beyond August 13, 2026 to August 13, 2027, including extension in service beyond the date of his superannuation i.e. July 31, 2027 or until further orders, whichever is earlier," said the order. A 1993-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Navin, 59, joined ED as special director in 2019. He became the agency's interim chief in September 2023. The government appointed him as the full-time chief of the agency for a fixed tenure of two years on August 14, 2024. During Navin's tenure, ED has continued and launched several high-profile investigations including those related to the political consultancy firm I-PAC, Reliance Anil Ambani Group, online money gaming companies, Trinamool Congress leaders, real-estate developers, human traffickers, among others, but not without facing allegations by Opposition political parties that it was a tool used by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to harass its opponents. As reported by HT earlier, Navin's tenure has seen ED realigning its strategy by focusing more on its core work - attaching the proceeds of crime so that the offenders cannot enjoy them and subsequently restitute the same to investors or victim banks. The agency has restituted assets worth over Rs.32,000 crore to the victims, out of total attachments worth Rs.2.40 lakh crore attached under the prevention of money laundering act or PMLA till date. Most of the property restitution has taken place in the last two years only. Out of Rs.32,000 crore assets restored so far, over Rs.15,000 crore is linked to fugitives Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. ED has filed 2,396 charge sheets in its 8,851 PMLA cases till date....