The CBI on Monday arrested four senior income-tax officers while accepting bribe.
The arrested officials include Kunal Singh of the Indian Revenue Service, who is currently posted as director (investigations) in Kanpur.
The CBI also arrested the joint director, investigations, Ratan Singh, also an IRS officer, assistant commissioner Uma Kant and income-tax inspector Harish Dhondiyal.
According to reports, the CBI arrested Pankaj Bajaj, managing director of realty firm Eldeco, which is under the scanner for alleged tax evasion, and chartered accountant, Anil Jaiswal, during the operation.
The action comes after searches conducted by the CBI on Sunday night at several locations, including Delhi. The agency claimed to have recovered `30 lakh from Kunal Singh’s Hauz Khas residence which was allegedly given as bribe by another accused to settle a tax evasion case against his firm, sources alleged.
The agency sleuths also carried out searches at the residential premises of Bajaj in Greater Kailash, Ratan Singh and Uma Kant in Ghaziabad, Jaiswal in Kanpur and Daundiyal in Vinod Nagar which led to recovery of huge amount of cash, valuables and incriminating documents, sources said.
Sources further said that the CBI had received a tip-off about the officers allegedly accepting bribe to settle tax evasion cases. Searches were also carried out in the income-tax offices of Kanpur and Noida where the officials were posted.
Kunal Singh, who was heading the probe and criminal investigation units of the I-T along with his team, had recently conducted search operations against officials of the Greater Noida Authority and private real estate players besides carrying out I-T raids in Uttar Pradesh and in the national capital region.
The arrested persons were produced before Patiala house courts in Delhi on Monday which granted them seven days of police remand.