New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) The CBI arrested a deputy commissioner of the income tax department for accepting a bribe of Rs.1.5 lakh to enable a steel manufacturing company evade taxes, an official said on Thursday.
M. Logapathy, a 2008 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) official, was arrested from his office at ITO in central Delhi by a team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials on Wednesday, the CBI official added.
Acting on a tip-off, the CBI arrested Logapathy for accepting the bribe from Hitesh Kumar, an advocate, who was acting as a middleman for the director of CBS Steel Private Limited.
Logapathy’s personal attendant Abhishek Kumar, who is serving at his office, was also arrested with Hitesh, on charges of bribery.
“This payment was being made on behalf of Vikash Singla, the director of CBS Steel Private Limited, in lieu of extending undue favours in tax evasion case,” said a CBI official.
Singla was also arrested later for availing the benefits by offering a bribe to an income tax officer, the official said.
Delhi-based CBS Steel Pvt. Ltd. is one of the largest importers and processors of flat rolled carbon steel.
“Searches were conducted at 12 locations including the office and residential premises of the accused in Delhi, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and Pondicherry which led to recovery of property documents, tax related files, hard discs, pen-drives and other incriminating documents,” the official said.
All the arrested accused were produced on Thursday before the designated court at Delhi and remanded into three-day CBI custody.