CBI arrests ITAT Member while accepting Rs. 30 Lakhs bribe
CBI caught red-handed an Accountant Member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata accepting a bribe of Rs. 30 lakhs from a Kolkata based firm for showing undue favours to the firm in the income-tax matters of various parties represented by the said firm. The accused official and the two private persons offering the bribe amount were arrested at the residence of the accused official at Nizam Palace , Kolkata.
CBI , Kolkata received a reliable information that the accused official had negotiated a bribe of Rs. 30 lakhs from the firm, which was to be paid to him at his residence on the instructions of the Proprietor of the firm on 13.5.2008 about 8.30 p.m. by one of the arrested persons after collecting the same from the other arrested person, who is an employee of a private Securities Firm of Kolkata. A trap was laid by the CBI team and the Accountant Member was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe amount from the two private persons. The trio (the bribe taker and the bribe givers) were arrested on the spot and the Proprietor of the firm, on whose instructions the money was to be paid was arrested subsequently.
Following the trap, the premises of the accused persons were searched and incriminating documents seized during the searches are being scrutinised.
While this may perhaps be the first time that a high power judge is caught red handed, the Government needs to look into this malady more seriously. You have appointed somebody as a judge with powers to decide cases involving Crores of rupees and you don't give him a car, a steno or any other facilities for effective functioning.
The other day, I called on a Vice-President of the ITAT. There was no power (electric) when I visited him. His office had no generator. His calling bell was not functioning and he went out himself to call his Office Superintendent when I complained to him that we were not getting their orders. The OS informed him that he did not have enough facilities for paper and photocopying!
If the standard of life that you provide to a Tribunal Member is so pathetic, you will only have more such CBI raids.
Such raids don't prove anything except eroding public confidence in such high judicial forums.