How CBI trapped this Income Tax commissioner in a corruption case

On Wednesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested an income tax official and five others in a corruption case. It was a Rs 2 crore bribery case that the CBI had busted.

The commissioner of the income tax (appeals) B B Rajendra is alleged to have taken a bribe to pass a favourable order on an appeal filed by a trust under the Essar group. While the CBI said that it had recovered the bribe amount of Rs 1.7 crore, Essar on the other hand has denied the allegations.

Rajendra was arrested from his house in Vishakapatanam. The 1992 batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service was in charge of appeals in the IT department at Mumbai. The CBI also arrested Essar Power vice-chairman, Pradeep Mittal, an accountant for the group, Vipin Bajpai, chartered accountant Shreyas Parikh and two others.

The CBI's case:

In the FIR the CBI said that Balaji Trust through its CA had agreed to bribe Prasad. Mittal was looking into the matter, the CBI also said. On April 21, according to the CBI, Prasad had passed a favourable order for the trust.

The CBI said during its probe it found that Prasad had got in touch through an associate, Suresh Jain who is into real estate and bullion. Jain is said to have got in touch with another person and enquired about the delivery of the money. It was promised that the money would be delivered either in Mumbai or Hyderabad.

The money was then ordered to be delivered. A person was put in charge to collect the first instalment. On Monday Prasad got in touch with Jain and asked him to hand over the money he had collected on his behalf.

The CBI was tipped off about the transaction. It was said that the money would be delivered at Prasad's residence in Vishakapatanam.

On Tuesday, a trap was set and the CBI caught Prasad receiving a sum of Rs 19.34 lakh from Jain. Both were arrested the remaining Rs 1.50 crore was also seized.

OneIndia News