Income tax officer held for seeking Rs 10,000 bribe sent to 2-day CBI remand by Mumbai court

Mumbai, January 5, 2023 

A special court here on Thursday remanded an income tax officer to two-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after he was arrested for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 10,000 for cancelling a PAN (permanent account number) card of a Mumbai resident.

The accused, Umesh Kumar, was arrested on Wednesday following a trap laid by the central probe agency on the basis of a complaint lodged by the city resident.

Special public prosecutor Sandeep Singh, appearing for the CBI, told the court it wants to thoroughly scan documents found at Kumar’s home and also obtain details of his movable and immovable properties.

The probe agency sought five-day custody of the accused, but the CBI court granted remand for only two days.

As per the probe agency, the complainant had gone to buy a mobile phone on loan from a shop on December 20. But the loan couldn’t be processed as the PAN did not match with the ten-digit alphanumeric number linked with his bank account.

He later gave a copy of another PAN card. It was later found the name and the date of birth on both cards were same, but the alphanumeric number was different, the CBI said.

The complainant then went to the income tax office in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in suburban Mumbai to cancel one of the cards, it said.

There, he met the accused who told him that keeping two PAN cards was a criminal offence and that it attracted a heavy fine of Rs 10,000, the CBI said.

The accused also told the complainant he could face jail and may even have to visit courts in the future. The I-T department officer then sought a bribe of Rs 10,000 to cancel one of the PAN cards, according to the central agency.

Instead of paying the bribe, the complainant approached the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch which laid a trap and arrested the accused.

[PTI]