Income Tax department administrative officer SK Srivastava who was caught taking a bribe of Rs10,000 from a travel agency owner by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday was sent to district jail after being produced in the court on Tuesday.
Srivastava had demanded Rs10,000 from a travel agency owner — Rahul Gupta — for clearing payments for the vehicles he had provided on rent to the department. Rahul was said to have moved from pillar to post to have the money released by the I-T department but to no avail. Irked over his futile bids to recover the outstanding money, Rahul had registered a compliant in the CBI, stating that Srivastava had demanded bribe for clearance of the payment.
The CBI officials recorded the conversation of the administrative officer with Rahul Gupta in which Rahul had agreed to cough up Rs10,000 to Srivastava at a place near St Joseph Academy in lieu of the payment being cleared.
Acting on this, the CBI teams reached the place and Srivastava was caught red-handed while receiving the bribe from Rahul. later, CBI questioned Srivastava inside his office and arrested him under the anti-corruption law. The accused Srivastava was presented before the CBI court from where he was sent for 14 days’ judicial custody.
Notably, CBI recently arrested Dehradun Cantonment Board accountant Manpal Singh who was caught red-handed while taking a bribe of Rs5,000 from a retired sanitation worker of the cantonment board on August 25 this year. Singh is still in jail, it is learnt.