Sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday faced violent protest when they conducted a surprise raid and arrested an Income Tax Officer in lucknow, immediately after the accused received a bribe of Rs2 lakh to make settlement in a case.
Interestingly, the CBI team, which was trapped in the I-T office, was later rescued by local police. A senior officer of the CBI confirmed that one of the witnesses also received serious injury after the I-T employees were attacked the officers. The I-T officials, reportedly, also opened the fire extinguisher to manage release of their officer who was caught red-handed accepting the bribe. However, their efforts went futile and the team left after arresting the officer.
later, the office bearers of the I-T Employees Union reacted to the allegations and claimed that they tried to stop the CBI team as they mistook them as some miscreants who were trying to use force on one of their officers to make settlement. However, once they learnt the fact, the employees left the scene.
Sources said the CBI Anti-Corruption team were informed that one Niranjan Kumar, I-T Officer, Range-V(2), posted at lucknow headquarters, had demanded illegal gratification of Rs10 lakh from the complainant for settling the matter of assessment of income tax for the financial year 2011-12. On Tuesday, the CBI team finally laid a trap soon after the first installment of bribe was handed over to the officer at his office.
“A trap was laid on Tuesday and the Income Tax Officer was caught red-handed while demanding & accepting a bribe of Rs2 lakh as initial payment of the demanded bribe from the complainant,” an official release of the CBI confirmed.
The CBI has registered a case U/s 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against above I-T officer and searches were conducted at the office & residential premises of the accused, the release added. Niranjan Kumar will be now produced before the designated court of the CBI here on Wednesday morning.