Mumbai:
A top Income Tax official and his Chartered Accountant aide were arrested on Friday night for accepting bribe from a software engineer for giving a closure report in an income tax scrutiny case, CBI officials said today.
The accused, Ramphool P Meena (51), Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and his aide U P Pai (65) were arrested for demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 2.20 lakh from a complainant working in a private firm, said Joint Director of CBI, Rishiraj Singh.
According to CBI Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), the 42-year-old software engineer was asked to pay income tax of Rs 20 lakh for the assessment year 2006-07. He challenged the order in the appeal wing of the I-T department saying his tax liability was wrongly calculated and it worked out to only Rs 9 lakh, CBI officials said.
"The victim approached Meena a year-and-half ago. The Commissioner demanded Rs 10 lakh through his aide Pai for giving the closure report," said Superintendent of Police Abhin Modak.
The victim showed his inability to pay the huge bribe when Pai asked him to shell out Rs 5 lakh. Finally, the victim agreed to pay Rs 2.2 lakh to get his work done, Modak added.
Subsequently, the victim approached CBI which asked him to go the IT official's office in South Mumbai with a recorder to record his conversation with Meena and Pai.