IRS officer, two other accused on the run: Anti Corruption Bureau

A woman chartered accountant (CA), who was arrested in a bribery case involving an assistant commissioner of Income Tax department, has been remanded to police custody. Namita Singhania, who was caught red-handed by Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) while accepting bribe of Rs 8 lakh, was remanded to ACB custody for two days, said DP Chudasama, assistant director of ACB.

She was allegedly accepting the cash on behalf of IRS officer Sureshchand Meena.

Meena, Namita's husband Sumit Singhania, as well as another I-T employee Sunil Patni, who have been booked in the case, are yet to be caught. "They are still absconding. We have formed teams to catch them," said Chudasama. On Monday, a team of ACB officials conducted a search at Singhania's office in Prahlad nagar.

According to ACB officials, Meena had allegedly demanded Rs 8 lakh from a taxpayer for settling a tax assessment case. A trap was laid to catch Meena after the taxpayer approached ACB, and lodged a complaint.

Meena had asked the taxpayer to hand over the money to CA Sumit Singhania. Singhania's wife Namita, a CA herself, went to collect the illicit cash since he was out of city. Namita walked into the ACB trap, and was arrested.

Sunil Patni, an employee of I-T department, had allegedly demanded Rs 50,000 for helping the complainant by taking up his case with Meena, and was also booked by ACB.