CBI arrests four persons including a defence middleman and a senior Income Tax officer for bribery
CBI arrested a known defence middleman, his son, their Chartered Accountant and a Deputy Director of Income Tax (Investigation) after registering a Regular Case against them and other unknown persons for hatching a conspiracy to favour the defence middleman and his son in an investigation conducted by the accused Deputy Director. After registering the case, CBI raided a famous hotel in Mumbai and caught all the four persons who had assembled there for discussion and negotiation as part of the conspiracy.
The Directorate of Income Tax (Investigation) had conducted raids during 2007 at the premises of the defence middleman in which several incriminating materials pertaining to the involvement of his (defence middleman's) and his associates in different defence deals were recovered. The accused Deputy Director (Investigation) was handling the investigation of that case. As part of the conspiracy, it is alleged, he obtained huge amount of bribe from the accused defence middleman and his son in order to favour them in the investigation report prepared by him in connection with the Income tax case. The deal was struck through the Chartered Accountant. As part of the deal, after receiving huge money, the official deliberately withheld/suppressed the incriminating material in his possession in the investigation report prepared by him in order to save the defence middleman and his associates from any impending prosecution by the Central Bureau of Investigation and other agencies. The officer also showed the draft investigation report which he had prepared to the Chartered Accountant and made changes as demanded by the defence middleman.
As part of the conspiracy, the middleman, his son and their Chartered Accountant met the accused Income tax official at a room in the hotel for further negotiations on the remaining bribe amount. The CBI team raided the hotel and caught all the four while their meeting was on.
Searches are continuing at different premises of the four accused persons in New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Mumbai and Goa.
The Dramatis personae are Arms dealer Suresh Nanda , his son Sanjeev Nanda who is also an accused in the BMW hit-and-run case, chartered accountant Bipin Shah and Deputy Director of Income Tax Ashutosh Verma, an IRS officer of the 1999 batch.