Bribery case: Two Income-tax officers, CA sent to jail for 3 years

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The CBI court on Friday sentenced two income-tax officers and a chartered accountant to three years’ imprisonment in a case of bribery of Rs 9 lakh from a packaging industry.

Special CBI court judge, Sudhir Kumar Mishra, while announcing the verdict, sentenced assistant income-tax commissioner, Pankaj Gupta, income-tax officer, Ajay Veere, and chartered accountant,  SS Mundra, to three years’ imprisonment. Along with this, they have also been slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000.

The Income-Tax officials and CA Mundra were caught red-handed taking bribes on February 20, 2008 when the CBI team raided the house of Pankaj Gupta, posted as assistant commissioner in the income tax department. Income-tax officer Ajay Veere was also present at Gupta’s place.

Gupta was taking bribes from the operator of a packaging unit through chartered accountant SS Mundra. Mundra was accused of being involved with the Income-Tax official in the bribery racket. The charge sheet was filed in the year 2009.

Earlier, Gupta had surveyed Advance Rotoflex Industries, a packaging unit and found that income-tax to the tune of Rs 65 lakh was outstanding. He demanded a bribe of Rs 9 lakh from Abhay, director of the company, to “solve” the alleged tax evasion case.