Income Tax Officer booked by CBI for Bribery Case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a new corruption case against Santosh Karnani, a former additional income tax commissioner in Ahmedabad, for allegedly sharing confidential information with a builder in order to help him win a case in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in exchange for heavily discounted land.

According to the FIR filed on September 11, the CBI learned about the alleged corruption through a forensic examination of two of Karnani’s phones, which he allegedly gave to his colleague and co-accused Vivek Johri for disposal before fleeing the state anti-corruption bureau’s trap operation.

Johri, who is based in Ahmedabad, was arrested in connection with a Rs 30 lakh bribery case in which Karnani is the main suspect.

When an ACB team from Gujarat arrived at Karnani’s office on Ashram Road in October 2022, he escaped after causing a commotion during the trap proceedings. After nearly six months of painstaking efforts, the CBI took over the case from the ACB and used cutting-edge sonar technology to recover the two mobile phones from the Sabarmati.

The CBI said it discovered several WhatsApp exchanges between Karnani and Ilesh Shah, the director of Shree Kanhai Realty Pvt Ltd, that showed the realtor was discussing a deal for a 2,428 square metre plot of land in the name of the officer’s wife, Arti Karnani.

It alleged that Shah transferred the land valued at Rs.3.50 crore to Arti Karnani at Rs 40 lakh.

The CBI claimed Shah had asked Karnani to speak to his lawyer before the ITAT hearing, to which Karnani had responded, “spoken,” and the phone date showed that Shah had shared one of the notices issued by the ITAT.