₹4-cr disproportionate assets: Asst chief for CGST booked by ACB

The assistant commissioner (CGST) and former assistant commissioner of customs, Deepak Pandit, has been booked by the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau

The assistant commissioner (CGST) and former assistant commissioner of customs, Deepak Pandit, has been booked by the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for amassing disproportionate assets worth nearly ~4 crore, 376% more than his legal source of income. Pandit’s wife and two sons have also been booked for helping him in the alleged crime.

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Pandit had acquired unaccounted residential and commercial properties in prime areas like Juhu, Andheri (West) and Kandivli (East).

Based on an anonymous complaint, the CBI has initiated an inquiry against Pandit, currently posted in the CGST and central excise department, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. CBI alleged that Pandit amassed the assets while working in the customs department between January, 2000 and March, 2014.

The CBI said that the accused, during his postings in the customs department at Mumbai, under different capacities and at various offices acquired properties, both movable and immovable, either in his own name or in the names of his wife Arushi Pandit and sons Ashutosh and Divyansh. The anonymous complaint also stated that he spent huge amounts of money for the weddings of his two sons.

The FIR filed by the CBI (HT has a copy), accuses Pandit of acquiring assets in the form of movable properties like bank balance, fixed deposits, mutual funds in his own name and in the names of his family members worth ~ 4,39,53,753 against savings of ~ 43,42,005. Thus, effectively, Pandit was in possession of disproportionate assets worth ~ 3,96,11,748 in his own name and in the names of his wife and children. During the probe, CBI found that Pandit’s wife Arushi had acquired immovable properties in her name and sold the same but she did not have any independent source of income at the time of purchasing the properties. It is alleged that the properties were bought by Pandit on her behalf, CBI sources said.

Similarly, his sons bought immovable properties and gold bars when they did not have any independent source of income. Pandit has been booked under relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act while his wife and two sons were booked for abetting him in the crime.