By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, June 15:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested two Superintendents and three Inspectors attached to the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Commissionerate at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh in a bribery case and recovered Rs 83.26 lakh in cash on Wednesday.
CBI had registered a case against a Superintendent, CGST, Jabalpur (MP) on the allegations that he demanded bribe of Rs.1,00,00,000/-for issuing release order of a factory which was raided and sealed last month.
On Wednesday, Superintendent Kapil Kamble, along with Soumen Goswami, Vikas Gupta, Pradeep Hazari and Virendr Jain were apprehended were remanded to CBI custody by a Special Court in Jabalpur..
Kamble, who had demanded Rs One crore from the factory owner reduced the amount to Rs 35 lakh after negotiation. The complainant factory owner handed over Rs. 25 lakh to Kamble and sought some more time to pay the remaining amount of Rs. 10 lakh. Later, the amount was reduced to Rs 07 lakh, after further negotiation.
The complainant alerted the CBI, who laid a trap and caught two Superintendents and three Inspectors while accepting bribe amount of Rs. 7 lakh. Then the searches were conducted at 07 locations including residential and office premises of accused at Jabalpur which led to the recovery of cash worth Rs. 83,26,800/-
Charge sheet against former IT Addl Commissioner
In another case, the CBI filed a charge sheet against Santosh Karnani, the then Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Range-I, Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Vivek Johri, the then Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax and a private person in an on-going investigation of a case.
CBI had registered the case on October 12,2022 against Santosh Karnani. Cased on the request of Gujarat Government and further Notification from the Central Government the CBI had taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered by Ahmedabad City ACB Police Station, related to bribery of Rs.30 Lakh.
The case goes back to IT raid at the office of the B Safal Group in September 2021, led by the I-T investigation wing. Rupesh Brahmbhatt, the owner of B Safal Group had complained to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) that the searches went on for nearly seven days at his office and home during which papers were seized by the raiding teams and an appraisal memo was submitted to the I-T’s Central Circle Range-1 at the Aaykar Bhavan on Ashram Road.
Karnani repeatedly threatened to cause huge financial and business loss and demanded money to manipulate the appraisal report in order not to cause any damage, Brahmbhatt had told investigating agency.
When the team of ACB, Gujarat went to Karnani’s office, he escaped by creating ruckus during trap proceedings. Before running away, he handed over two mobile handsets to Johri. It was alleged that Johri had facilitated Karnani’s escape and disposed of the mobile handsets by throwing them same in Sabarmati River. Subsequently the CBI retrieved the mobiles from the river front with the help of divers and other agencies using diving equipment and Remotely Operated Vehicle equipped with SONAR technology. Karnani and Johri who were arrested subsequently are now in judicial custody.