The anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested a chartered accountant (CA) and a tax consultant for demanding a bribe of Rs 6 lakh from a 70-year-old woman to get her case settled at the Income Tax (I-T) office.
The CBI who initially had also registered a case against a senior official of the I-T department’s investigation wing later found that the CA and tax consultant were just using his name to take money from the woman whose name was withheld by the agency.
The CBI arrested CA Sunil Shah and tax consultant Dinesh Mathuria. Both have been remanded in CBI’s custody till Friday. Officials said the woman is a landlord in Andheri.
A CBI official said that I-T’s investigation wing had got some complaint of tax evasion against the woman and were investigating it. Shah and Mathuria asked her to pay Rs 10 lakh for the I-T official to get the case settled. The CBI registered cases against Shah, Mathuria and asked the woman to approach the two again to negotiate the amount. Her conversation with them was recorded.
Based on it, they raided Shah’s and Mathuria’s office on Tuesday. They found Rs 10 lakh in Shah’s Andheri office. Some documents related to the woman’s I-T case were recovered from Mathuria. The CBI said it would not proceed against the I-T official.
I-T Department should publish a periodical report and send it to all tax-payees. In the periodical report, certain precautionary measures can be advised to the tax-payers. Transparency is needed. There should be a 'reward system' for 'anonymous reporters' who reports about 'Tax evasion'. A separate wing with 'clean-handed officials' can be started for follow-up of 'tax evasions'.