CBI arrests five senior CGST officers in ₹50 lakh bribery case
Mumbai, Nov 1, 2024
CBI arrests five senior CGST officers in a ₹50 lakh bribery case involving demands for bribes to avoid arrest in a tax-evasion probe.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested five senior Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) officers, including an additional commissioner and a joint commissioner from Indian Revenue Service, and three superintendents last week, as part of its probe into an alleged ₹50 lakh bribery case registered on September 5.
After receiving necessary permissions from the Finance Ministry in Delhi, as required under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the CBI made arrests of the five accused last week, sources familiar with the developments said. The arrested officers are Deepak Sharma, CGST additional commissioner; Rahul Kumar, joint commissioner who worked in Mumbai in the past before being assigned to his post at Dibrugarh, Assam; and Bijender Janawa, Nikhil Agrawal and Nitin Gupta, superintendents.
Based on a complaint lodged by a Goregaon-based businessman with a pharmaceutical trading firm, an FIR was registered against the officials. The complaint alleged that some CGST officials confined and subjected him to force and verbal abuse for 18 hours, demanding ₹80 lakh in return for not arresting him and favouring him in an ongoing tax-evasion probe. After negotiations, the bribe amount was later reduced to ₹60 lakh, of which ₹50 lakh was eventually paid.
In a setback for the agency, a special court in Mumbai last week released Kumar on bail on technical grounds, while the other four accused were remanded to judicial custody. Kumar was arrested in Dibrugarh last week. After procuring a transit remand from a court in Assam, the CBI brought him to Mumbai to question him about allegations related to his role in the case. His lawyers stated that the ‘grounds of arrest’ were only communicated to him orally a day later, and not provided at the time of arrest.
The CBI recovered ₹30 lakh out of the total bribe amount was allegedly paid earlier through a hawala operator. It conducted searches at nine locations, including the official and residential premises of the accused in and around Mumbai to examine various allegedly incriminating documents and digital devices. The probe revealed that certain messages were exchanged pertaining to the case among accused persons using encrypted devices and apps including FaceTime. The CBI had earlier examined the additional commissioner’s phone too as part of the probe, according to sources.
In September, the agency had arrested Sachin Gokulka, CGST superintendent (anti-evasion) Mumbai West Commissionerate; Raj Agarwal, chartered accountant; and Abhishek Mehta, consultant during three trap/controlled trap proceedings related to the alleged acceptance of part bribe amount of ₹20 lakhs paid by the businessman under duress, to avoid his arrest in a tax-evasion proceeding of CGST against his firm. Eight accused were arrested in the case so far.
[The Hindustan Times]
