A special court on Wednesday granted bail to arrested income tax commissioner from Nagpur, Ajoy Singh, his wife, Mrinalika and two other relatives arrested in Hyderabad. While Singh was released on a bail amount of Rs 5 lakh, the others were released on Rs 1 lakh each.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged that Singh had amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 4 crore and bought property in the name of several relatives. The defence argued that a chargesheet had been filed in the case and the accused had deep roots in society and would not abscond from justice.
Singh and his wife were arrested on Sunday while his sister, Shanti, and her husband, Subhash Chandra, were arrested in Hyderabad on Tuesday. The CBI on Tuesday filed its chargesheet against the four arrested and 11 others. Special CBI judge Vijay Sikchi prohibited the four accused from “transferring’ ‘ any of the movable or immovable properties without prior permission from the court.
A CBI official said, “We realised that Singh’s relatives were involved when we found blank cheques signed by them during the raid at chartered accountant Kartik Kothari’s premises,” a CBI official said. Meanwhile, sources said the conduct of some officials in the investigation wing of the income tax department is under scanner in connection with some raids carried out recently. “In most of the cases, the parties indulged in bogus billing; showing fake sales and purchases. However, the tax evasion has been recorded under a different head as bogus billing and would have invited the attention of SEBI,” a source said.
