I-T commissioner, aide arrested while taking bribe: CBI

A top income tax official and his chartered Accountant aide were arrested last 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 UP Pai, 65, were arrested last night for demanding and accepting bribe of Rs2.20 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 Rs20 lakh for the assessment year 2006-07. He challenged the order in the appeal wing of the IT department saying his tax liability was wrongly calculated and it worked out to only Rs9 lakh, CBI officials said.

"The victim approached Meena a year-and-half ago. The commissioner demanded Rs10 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 Rs5 lakh. Finally, the victim agreed to pay Rs2.2 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.