An Income Tax officer attached to the Karnataka and Goa Circle of the Income Tax Department was trapped and arrested while accepting a bribe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the city on Wednesday night.
The arrested officer had allegedly demanded a bribe of ₹20 lakh from the complainant, M. Srinivas Rao, MD, Windsor Garden Pvt. Ltd., a real estate firm, to cover up an investigation against him. Acting on his complaint, CBI sleuths laid a trap for the I-T officer when he came to a cafe in Jayanagar to collect a bribe of ₹14 lakh, the final amount the complainant had negotiated with him. The officer was arrested while accepting the bribe.
I-T officers H.R. Nagesh and Narender Singh had conducted a tax survey of Windsor Garden, in Jayanagar on March 6. They recovered two receipts of ₹25 lakh and ₹10 lakh for cash that Mr. Rao had given to another realtor Sarvottam Raju, and 10 cheques Mr. Raju had issued to Mr. Rao in return. The complainant has alleged that the two officers later demanded a bribe of ₹20 lakh to return the receipts and the cheques, which he negotiated down to ₹7.5 lakh. However, they demanded a similar bribe from Mr. Raju, and Mr. Rao negotiated a deal to pay ₹14 lakh on behalf of both of them. But, not wanting to pay the bribe, he lodged a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the CBI, leading to the arrest.
CBI officials who arrested Nagesh, later conducted raids on the residence of the accused persons, sources said.