CBI seizes ₹30.5L from CGST officer’s premises
Mumbai, Mar 19, 2024
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed to have seized cash of around ₹30.5 lakh during a search conducted at the premises of an assistant commissioner of the Central Goods & Service Tax (CGST & ST) department, who has been arrested by the agency on Friday in a bribery case, along with a department inspector.
Apart from the cash of ₹30.5 lakh, the agency also recovered property documents that are being scrutinised to verify if they had been acquired with the accused’s known sources of income, CBI sources said.
The CBI on Friday arrested assistant commissioner Suhas Bhalerao and inspector S Mohapatra, who were both posted in Navi Mumbai, in an alleged bribery case of ₹1.5 lakh. The CBI probe revealed that the assistant commissioner allegedly demanded a bribe of ₹6 lakh from a partner in a transport firm to settle a show-cause notice issued to him about Service Tax.
After negotiations, Bhalerao allegedly brought down the demand ₹1.5 lakh and told the complainant to pay the bribe amount to him via the accused inspector, Mohapatra, who was arrested in the subsequent trap laid by the CBI.
Both the accused were posted at CGST & CX, Division-1, Belapur Commissionerate, Navi Mumbai. Based on a complaint from the transporter, the CBI had earlier registered a case against the accused assistant commissioner.
“The complainant received a show-cause notice issued by the assistant commissioner, CGST & CX, Div-1, Belapur Commissionerate, Navi Mumbai,” said a CBI source. “The complainant thereafter submitted the required documents, but the assistant commissioner had allegedly demanded bribe of ₹6 lakh from the former for settling the show-cause notice related to Service Tax,” the source added.
“On receiving complaint, the CBI laid a trap and caught the inspector while accepting ₹1.5 lakh bribe amount from the complainant on behalf of the assistant commissioner. Both of them are arrested,” the source said. The agency undertook searches at the residential and official premises of accused public servants subsequently.
[The Hindustan Times]
