CBI arrested four senior Income Tax Department officials, including Director Investigations Kunal Singh besides Managing Director of realty firm Eldeco in connection with an alleged graft case.
In a major operation, CBI on Monday arrested four senior Income Tax Department officials, including Director Investigations Kunal Singh besides Managing Director of realty firm Eldeco in connection with an alleged graft case.
The agency arrested Singh, who also holds charge of Commissioner Kanpur range, Additional Director Investigations Ratan Singh, Assistant Director Uma Kant, Inspector Harish Dhaundiyal, Managing Director of Eldeco Pankaj Bajaj and Chartered Accountant Anil Jaiswal in connection with the case, CBI sources said.
The arrests come a day after CBI launched a coordinated search operation in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Noida after getting a tip-off that the officials had allegedly entered into a deal with Eldeco to help it in a tax evasion case, they said.
Sources said the matter pertains to survey carried out by IT officials on March 28 this year in connection with complaints of alleged tax evasion by Eldeco.
They said before listing the recoveries from Bajaj's lockers, the officials allowed him and his family to allegedly take away major portion of cash and gold stored in them in lieu of illegal gratification.
The agency recovered Rs 30 lakh from Hauz Khas residence of Kunal Singh which was allegedly give as bribe by Bajaj to settle a tax evasion case against his firm Eldeco, they said.
Following the recovery, the teams carried out searches at residential premises of Bajaj in Greater Kailash, Ratan Singh and Uma Kant in Ghaziabad, Jaiswal in Kanpur and Daundiyal in Vinod Nagar which led to recovery of huge amount of cash, valuables and incriminating documents, they said.
Searches were also carried out in the Income Tax offices of Kanpur and Noida where the officials were posted.
They were produced before Patiala House Court today which granted them seven days of police remand.
Kunal Singh, who was heading criminal investigation unit of the IT, had recently conducted search operations against officials of Greater Noida Authority and private real estate players.
He had carried out raids in Uttar Pradesh and in the National Capital Region detecting tax evasion to the tune of crores of rupees.
CBI sources said some senior officials of the department based in Lucknow and Delhi may soon been questioned in connection with the case.
Repeated attempts to call Eldeco did not materialise as no one answered the office numbers. The e-mails sent on the ID given on the group's website also bounced back.
In a statement, CBI said that the Investigation Wing of IT department at Kanpur conducted survey on the allegation of tax evasion by the said private group of companies.
"The senior level officials of the private company along with a Chartered Accountant based in Kanpur contacted several officials of IT Department to settle their IT evasion matter by illegal means and allegedly paid huge amount of bribe to the said officials of Income Tax," the spokesperson said.
It alleged a large amount of bribe was paid to the officials of Income Tax Department, including the Additional Director (Investigation) and the Director (Investigation) in return for favours shown to the private persons and to settle the IT evasion matter.
"The Chartered Accountant of Kanpur was working as a middle-man between the IT officials and the officials of the private company. CBI conducted searches at the house of the Director (Investigation) at Delhi and recovered Rs 30 lakh which was paid as bribe by the MD of the private company to him," the statement said.
The spokesperson said searches led to recovery of huge amount of cash, valuables and incriminating documents.
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