Two I-T officials get 3-year jail term in bribery case

Mumbai: A special CBI court on Tuesday sentenced two Income Tax (I-T) officials to three years in imprisonment for demanding ₹35 lakh from a city-based businessman to close complaints received against the latter in 2009

Mumbai: A special CBI court on Tuesday sentenced two Income Tax (I-T) officials to three years in imprisonment for demanding ₹35 lakh from a city-based businessman to close complaints received against the latter in 2009.

HT Image

The court also imposed a fine of ₹40,000 each and suspended their sentence to enable them to file an appeal before the high court.

The convicts, assistant income tax commissioner Rajkumar Bhatia, 56, and income tax inspector Suresh Khetan, 52, had demanded ₹35 lakh from Rajkumar Khushlani, partner of Indrapuram Resort Apartment, claiming that there were serious complaints against him.

Khushlani had approached the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on January 19, 2009, claiming that he was working as a contractor under one Arun Patil, who was a city engineer with the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation.

On December 19, 2008, Khetan asked Patil to meet Bhatia as there were serious complaints against him. Subsequently, on December 22, Patil met Bhatia who asked him to produce I-T papers for their firms. Accordingly, Patil had submitted all the documents in the last week of December, 2008.

However, after submitting the documents, Bhatia asked Patil to pay ₹2 lakh or he will issue orders to conduct searches of his office and residential premises. To avoid complications, Patil paid the said amount to Khetan on December 29, 2008.

Again, in January 2009, Khetan called Patil and asked him to produce remaining documents and asked him to visit his office. On January 7, 2009, when Patil went to submit the requested documents, he was told that the matter was serious and they needed to pay ₹35 lakh to him to close the complaints against him. Bhatia threatened him that only could close the case, otherwise his other partners, including the informant will also face search and seizure.

Two days later, when Patil and Khushlani visited Bhatia, the officials reiterated that the complaints were of serious nature and they must pay the demanded amount, otherwise he will reopen their earlier assessments and ruin them.

Meanwhile, Khushlani approached the CBI and reported the demand. A trap was laid where Bhatia was caught demanding ₹35 lakh and later reducing the bribe amount to ₹12.51 lakh. Later, Khetan was caught accepting a bribe amount of ₹2 lakh on January 21, 2009. On the next day, Bhatia too was arrested by the CBI.

The duo in their defence had claimed that they were made scapegoats at the hands of senior officials. However, the CBI court rejected the defence and convicted them.

“There are no circumstances emerging from the record that they were made scapegoats. On the contrary, complicity of both the accused is seen. Continuous and consistent presence of both the accused during negotiations and lowering of demanded amount and further accepting ₹2 lakh are also clear indicators of meeting of minds to hatch a criminal conspiracy for obtaining bribes from the informant,” the court observed.