Maharashtra: SGST's assistant commissioner booked by ACB in bribery case

An Assistant Commissioner of the State Goods & Services Tax (SGST) department has been booked by the officials of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a bribery case. The accused public servant had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 30000 from a businessman to accept his GST related documents.

The accused government servant has been identified as Nitin Bagal (48), who is posted at the Mazgaon office of the SGST.

According to the ACB, the complainant in the case is the proprietor of a private company and his business is registered under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act and GST Act. Bagal had issued an order to the company of the complainant about the payment of dues of Rs 1.68 lakh with regards to certain sales in 2016-17 and non-submission of C-Form at the SGST office.

"Since the C-Form was received by the complainant due to some delay, the online rectification application related to it was done at Bagal's office in January this year. The complainant's chartered accountant had visited Bagal's office for submission of all the required documents and C-Form, Bagal allegedly refused to accept the documents and demanded a bribe of Rs 30000," said an ACB official.

He added, "The CA then informed the complainant about Bagal's demand, after which the complainant met Bagal, who made the same demand before the complainant. The victim, who did not wish to pay the bribe, approached the ACB and got a complaint lodged in the matter. Verification of the allegations made by the complainant had revealed that Bagal had finally settled for a bribe of Rs 25000. A trap was laid and Bagal was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe from the complainant on Thursday."

In a separate case, the ACB officials have booked four persons working with the P/North ward of the BMC for allegedly demanding from a person for providing a new water connection. According to the ACB, accused public servants Ritesh Jaiswal, Pragya Sawant, Sharad Kadam and a meter reading inspector had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 9000 from the complainant to provide him a new water connection. Kadam was caught red-handed on Thursday while accepting his bribe share of Rs 2000 from the complainant, the ACB claimed.

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