Chartered Accountant, Income Tax Officer arrested in bribery case; Read More

An Income Tax officer (ITO) and a Chartered Accountant (CA) have been detained by the CBI in Chennai for their suspected participation in a Rs. 2.25 lakh bribery case, authorities said on Saturday.

The CPWD superintendent engineer Sanjay Chinchghare, assistant valuation officer D. Manjunathan, chartered accountant Satgurudas, and Suresh, the assessee and property owner, they claimed, were the targets of a FIR that led to the bureau’s action.

Chinchghare was also assigned to the Chennai Income Tax Valuation Cell as a district valuation officer.

According to the officials, Suresh was charged by the CBI of declaring a high-value property transaction in his income tax return, which the National Faceless Assessment Center, New Delhi, allegedly directed to the Income Tax Valuation Cell.

They said that Manunathan examined the property and highlighted the discrepancy in the property valuation.

“A superintending engineer (Planning) Chinchghare, CPWD, Chennai, who was in charge of the District Assessment Officer (DVO), IT Valuation Cell, Chennai, was the competent authority in finalising the valuation,” a CBI spokeswoman said.

It was also stated that the Income Tax Valuation Cell officials had asked the property owner Suresh for a bribe of Rs 3.50 lakh in exchange for official favour. Suresh allegedly submitted the money through his auditor/cpa Satgurudas to be delivered to the aforementioned AVO.

According to them, the CBI detained Manjunathan and Satgurudas after receiving information regarding the suspected bribe exchange, which led to their arrest.

The favourable letter/order in regard to the said property was retrieved from the chartered accountant, the spokesperson said, and a sum of Rs. 2.25 lakhs was recovered from the AVO.

According to him, searches led to the confiscation of cash totaling Rs. 1.25 lakh from Satgurudas and Rs. 9 lakh from Manjunathan’s possession.

The spokesperson stated, “It was alleged that the Auditor/CA took Rs.1.25 lakh out of a total bribe of Rs.3.50 lakh as his charges for his mediation by him in the dispute.