Income Tax officer gets three years in jail for taking bribe

The special CBI court here today convicted a former Additional Commissioner of Income Tax for accepting a bribe, and sentenced him to three years in jail.

R K Gupta, the accused, had asked for a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from A Singhania, a chartered accountant, to clear the assessment of one of his clients in 2008. Later the amount was reduced to Rs 8 lakh.

Singhania filed a complaint with CBI, which arrested Gupta red-handed while accepting the first instalment of Rs 4 lakh and charged him under Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI lawyer Kiran Makasare told the court that the central agency had also recovered Rs 7.5 lakh from Gupta's house, which was the bribe money he had taken from others.
Fifteen witnesses were examined by the prosecution. Advocate Makasare also produced taped conversation between the accused and the complainant.

The court accepted CBI's case and sentenced Gupta to three years' imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him.

Gupta got bail immediately afterwards.

CBI has also filed a disproportionate assets case against him, which is still pending before the court.