CBI arrests IT officer for accepting bribe

An Income Tax officer has been arrested here for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a businessman to resolve a case involving him.

The accused has been identified as Rakesh Jain, ITO, Chandigarh, CBI officials said. “The complainant, a local businessman, has alleged in his complaint that the I-T officer sent him income tax notices and then called him to fix a meeting,” a CBI statement said.

During the meeting, the ITO initially demanded a bribe of Rs 3.50 lakh from him to settle his tax matter. Later, the demand of bribe amount was reduced to Rs 2.50 lakh and the first instalment of Rs 50,000 was to be paid yesterday,”  a CBI press release said on Wednesday.

A case was registered against the I-T officer under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“CBI laid a trap and the accused officer was caught while demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs 50,000 from the complainant,” it said.

The searches conducted at his residence led to recovery of Rs 23 lakh in cash, two bricks of gold (1 kg each), 16 bank accounts in his name and in the names of his family members