Over Rs 3 crore in cash have been recovered from an IAS couple in Bhopal following raids by the Income Tax Department officials at their residence on Thursday night. Officials also seized details of bank deposits worth Rs 2.25 crore from the house of Arvind Joshi, a senior IAS officer and his wife Tinu Joshi, who is the secretary of Woman and Child Welfare Development in the Madhya Pradesh government.
“Stacks of banknotes were recovered in a suitcase. The action comes on the basis of documents found during a similar exercise in 2009 of heavy investments made in an insurance company by these officials,” said Director General of Investigations (I-T) for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Brajesh Gupta.
Sources say Joshi confessed all the money is from unaccounted sources .
There were also simultaneous raids at the houses of retired Bhopal Municipal Corporation commissioner MA Khan and senior Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer BL Agarwal in Raipur from where bank accounts worth Rs 30 crore were frozen.
The residence of Road and Bridge development engineer RD Chaudhary, Superintending Engineer in PWD Deepak Asai, his wife Jyoti Asai, businessmen Sunil Agrawal and Pawan Agrawal dealing in fertilisers besides ICICI bank manager Seema Jaiswal and bank agent Bharti Bhasne were also raided.
Income Tax department is collecting details of accounts of concerned persons and their lockers are being searched. Documents relating to investment have been seized.
More than 13 places across Madhya Pradesh and Chattishgarh have been raided so far following information from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) that benami (proxy) investments worth crores of rupees have been made in various financial institutions.
Is IRS officer too weak to get harrased n warned by a local police or politician or IAS?
then by reading this many people will stop to aspire to become an IRS….
If the addl.commissioner of income tax was put to jail illegally,was no action taken against the then SP?
So does it mean IPS or IAS is more powerful than IRS?
Even IT officer also has powers to summon DM,why dint he do so?
It is good to know that Corrupt officers are being raided and apprehended. Media galore is there for a while. Can all of us are going to accept that they were the only officials who were corrupt and thus the corruption is over. No. We all know that they must not have good PR that is why they have been caught.
We should ensure that all those who are consuming our hard earned money should also be apprehended and tried in accordance with the settled Provisions of Law. Strict actions must be ensured against them as they being Custodian of our Assets have misappropriated them wilfully to gain personally.
They do not deserve the sympathy. However they earn pity as they have been caught in the pond full of such big fat fishes who are out to ruin our mechanism of social wellbeing. Are we awakened. This is the time when we should all ask for Public responsibility from not only the bureaucrats but from Politicians who with their divisive means are out to destroy our faith in the judiciary, ourselves and the almighty.
With reference to the comment of A.Banerjee, I would like to add another instance of an identical incident of highhandedness of an IPS officer, who many years back was the then SP of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. The then Addl. Commissioner of Incometax in that small town was hand cupped and put behind the bar for one whole night without any charge, with the full knowledge of the then Secretary in the Department and the chief secretary of the CPM-ruled state. However, in the morning the officer was probably released, but no action was even contemplated against the SP who only acted this way for showing off his powers and strength and supremacy over an IRS officer. This is almost a daily affair in the life of an honest officer in the IT Deptt., particularly in the state capitals and also in the district/sub-divisional towns.
As a taz payer for years what I reliably understand is that the political masters of all parties including BJP and Leftists all and the IAS are against treating the IRS of the ITDeptt as equal to the grade-2 officers of the central service/department and so the chairman of the IT Deptt is lower in rank to the joint secretary of administration in the same department because he is an IAS officer. One FM even never offered seats to chairman of the IT deptt as he thinks that they are inferior to all government servants.
As ordinary tax payers I feel happy that this has happened, whether ultimately the officers go scot free or not.
Good thing they have do by raiding IAS officials House. And same way proseecution has to be done and punished regorously.
Mr. Banarjee’s views are against a particular practioner which is totally wrong and padma award’s are not given just like that; let him view the processess of getting it and credibility of it.
Its a bravery decision and act by the departments by recovering; it should be appreciated; similarly if the department takes some steps to recover the black money lying in Swiss Bank over a period of time. Then there could never be a deficit budget in Indian history; We the professionals will assist further to the government in the administration and economy for the upliftment of the country.
Pollution Control Board people (not all) is the next department to be inspected soon; they are damaging the ozone by getting and allowing the rewards from and to the industrialists by ignoring their ENT failures in dyeing; chemicals, oil mineral industries.
Bravo,IT Dept.as well as Revenue Dept.It’s worth to mention that indeed the department after such a long time could realize that not only the corrupt businessmen but also almost all the Executive Officers,Secretaries and Chief Engineers of each department in each States of India has been totally corrupted and their al together assets(undisclosed) would not be less than the amount of annual budget of India ! It’s time to throttle the housing sector-wherein survey should be carried out in each and every building –compelling the owners to disclose their source of fund for acquiring the house/flat.
kya ITD ne kisi neta ke ghar raid ki. No and Never. Why ? Go and get billions from anyone
Great, no doubt. But will the officers of the IT Deptt. be allowed to live and complete the legal action and also ensure that the ITAT, etc. will not give total relief to these corrupt criminals who should actually remain in prison? I am afraid about the physical safety of the officers involved in the searches-in fact, all of them ought to even apply for advance anticipatory bail too lest false cases should be foisted on them.
The most relevant question is whether the DOPT/State Governments will allow these criminals to continue in their posts/jobs as undoubtedly they could not have flourished in their ventures unless they shared their booty with their political and bureaucratic masters and had/have underground connections for protecting the loot.
Anyway, congratulations to a department which is actually the least important as compared to the PM, FM, IAS, IPS, IFS, IPoS, IAAS, etc.
Kudos to the Income-tax Department and the IRS officers. This is a very great achievement, in view of the (unspelt) fact that, in the past also, several attempts were made to search the officers of the IAS, IPS, etc., as well as (mal)practising CAs and Advocates but these efforts were negatived due to the pressures from the Ministry/Revenue Secretary. In fact, a practitioner who was to be searched but never searched even rose to be awarded a Padma award!
What is suggestive, and certainly heartening, is that, this action could be taken the moment there is a change in the incumbent in the post of Revenue Secretary. But, of course, the clean image of the CBDT Chairman also goes to speak volumes.
One thing, however, is certain. No more deputations for IRS officers in any of the Central Ministries/PSUs, no more foreign trainings for them as the necessary concommitant for this “audacity” on the part of a “subordinate and inferior” Service officers, by way of reprisals for this action. And, now, there will be no stones unturned by the IAS to seethat the DTC is passed as it is, with the CBDT being made a sub-office working under the IAS and the CSS.
Hence, the IRS must be ready for the reprisals resulting from these raids-in fact, they may even be arrested any time anywhere by the police on flimsy grounds, as was the case several years ago in Raipur. An IAS officer, then DM, was infuriated with the then IAC (present day Addl. CIT) who was summoned to the DM’s office and severely admonished for initiating action against an SHO in Raipur. The DM point blank threatened the IT officer that, if the notices were not cancelled and the proceedings dropped against the SHO, every officer and Inspector including ladies must be ready for arrest on a Friday night on any charge as the police felt necessary!
The IT Deptt. did accordingly, mainly as the IAS had royal blood and very, very highly connected.
This is by way of a warning to the IRS and the IT Deptt. as a whole.