Additional I-T commissioner Sumitra Banerji and her husband Subrato, who were arrested in a Rs 1.80 crore bribery case registered by CBI three weeks ago, will spend some more time in jail, as their bail plea was rejected on Wednesday.
Sumitra’s immediate boss, Thane I-T Commissioner Aniruddh Rai, has meanwhile, applied for anticipatory bail. Rai’s wife Neenu and father Bachchan Surendranath Rai had applied for anticipatory bail plea on April 27. Their plea will come up for hearing before a Thane special court on Thursday.
Besides that of the Banerjis, a special CBI court on Thursday also rejected the bail plea of arrested assistant I-T commissioner Anjali Bambole.
The CBI hopes to dig out more evidence against Sumitra with more builders coming forth to share information about the harassment they allegedly faced from her. The I-T commissioner moving the court with family members to seek anticipatory bail, has strengthened CBI’s suspicion that the buck did not stop at Sumitra.
On Wednesday, advocates Harshad Ponda and Ishwar Bagadia, appearing on behalf of the Banerjis and Bambole contended that the CBI had no power to arrest the I-T officer, as provided in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
However, CBI special public prosector Ejaz Khan said the agency was not bound by the Act in bribe cases. The CBI contended that builders are coming forth to share information and granting bail to the suspects could hamper ongoing investigation.
The CBI told special judge S P Hayatnagarkar that it suspects the involvement of more persons including I-T officials in the bribe case, and they needed to be arrested soon.
On Thursday, the anticipatory bail plea of Rai, his wife Neenu and father Bachchan Surendranath Rai will come up for hearing before Thane special judge P N Sayed. The hearing of Neenu and B S Rai’s anticipatory bail plea was postponed till Thursday following a CBI plea that the Rais be asked to appear for questioning before the agency could submit its say on the matter.
Rai, who has evaded CBI so far, is also not reporting to duty.
The Case
Indian Revenue Service officer Sumitra Banerji and her husband Subrato were arrested by the CBI on April 19 on the charge that Sumitra had allegedly demanded bribe of Rs 1.80 crore from a Thane builder to sort out his tax matters. Subrato was arrested because he allegedly accepted money from a builder at Vikhroli.
Anjali Bambole, an assistant I-T commissioner working under Banerji, was arrested as she had prepared tax documents of the builder on the basis of which the alleged bribe was demanded.
Subsequent search at the Banerji residence yielded CBI cash Rs 46 lakh, besides jewellery worth nearly Rs 50 lakh, and investment to the tune of Rs 2 crore in Pune, Chembur and Malaysia.
Why single out Bomabay and Thane. The pride of the place goes to Delhi where CITs particularly on the appellate side stay in posh Lutyen’s Delhi which is hardly four KMs from their offices but never reach their offices before noon and do not take up hearings after 1.30.
Thane postings are only secondary in importance to Bombay postings.
But Thane has been traditionally used as a stepping stone to remain close to Bombay when the concerned officers in Bombay are due for transfer out of Bombay due to their long stay in Bombay.
You can find many officers, including chief commissioners, who manage to be posted to Thane when they are transferred out of Bombay. After a couple of years, they are back in Bombay.
The officers transferred to Thane can keep their official flat in Bombay. And senior officers like the Chief Commissioners travel to and from Thane in the official cars. The official car comes all the way from Thane every morning to pick them up. then drops them back in the evening and goes back to Thane in the evening. Naturally, these officers can never reach their office in time. For them, official time starts when they leave home and ends when they return home.
And of course, they can choose not to go to Thane on any day, by deciding to meet some one or other in Bombay.
Just ask for the log book of the official Thane, CC’s car and see for yourself.
The driver gets his over time….every day of the week…
Under what circumstances must a person seek anticipatory bail, and on what premise?
Sir, an informed source who was in the Mumbai ITO has said that Thane postings cost several crores and all the Thane officers traditionally have been on wrong side of the law. Without paying very heavily or having very powerful political and bureaucratic support no body can get Thane. It is also learnt that if an officer spends 5-10 years in Thane, he or she becomes worth 100-200 crores, owning several properties, film investments, resorts, even companies. So they become bread givers and very influential.
Are these facts?
Something is terribly wrong with the selection process of UPSC. How come the so called best and the brightest students who are picked up every year in Civil services end up as corrupt and morally degraded officials?
They of course need to be stringently punished but the case represents only the tip of the iceberg. It is common knowledge that no scrutiny assessment is done without demands for illegal gratification running into lacs. The menace has now spread to the appellate authorities. And if anybody dares to stand erect, he is not only slapped with illegal demands of tax but is harassed to the core by attaching his bank accounts and financially crippling his business.