IT Official held for seeking Bribe of Rs.10000 to cancel PAN card; Sent to CBI Remand

An income tax officer was arrested for allegedly demanding a Rs 10,000 bribe in order to cancel a Mumbai resident’s PAN card, and a special court in this city remanded him to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) custody for two days on Thursday.

Umesh Kumar, the accused, was detained on Wednesday as a result of a trap set by the central investigation agency in response to a complaint made by a city resident.

The CBI wants to thoroughly examine the documents discovered at Kumar’s home, according to special public prosecutor Sandeep Singh, who is representing the CBI before the court. The CBI also wants to learn about Kumar’s movable and immovable property.

The investigation agency asked for five days of accused’s custody, but the CBI court only authorised two.

2 PAN with same person

According to the investigation team, the complainant went to a store on December 20 to borrow a phone. However, the PAN did not match the ten-digit alphanumeric number associated with his bank account, so the loan could not be processed.

Later, he provided a copy of a different PAN card. The name and the date of birth were later discovered to be identical on both cards, but the CBI reported that the alphanumeric number was different.

To cancel one of the cards, the complainant allegedly went to the income tax office located in Mumbai’s suburb of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC).

He encountered the defendant there, who informed him that having two PAN cards was illegal and would result in a severe fine of Rs 10,000, according to the CBI.

The defendant also warned the complainant that he might go to jail and possibly have to appear in court in the future. According to the central agency, the I-T department officer then requested a Rs 10,000 bribe in exchange for cancelling one of the PAN cards.

The complainant approached the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch rather than paying the bribe, and they set up a trap and took the accused into custody.