I-T commissioner, 5 others held for graft

NEWDELHI: The CBI on Wednesday arrested the Mumbai Income Tax (I-T) commissioner, global giant Essar group’s MD and four others in a bribery case. The I-T official allegedly accepted money in exchange of passing an order favouring the group’s associate.

According to the FIR, BB Rajendra Prasad, who was posted as commissioner of Mumbai I-T department (Appeals -30) had recently passed an order in an appeal favouring Balaji trust, which had links with the Essar group. “This trust, through a chartered accountant (Shreyas Parikh) had agreed to pay a hefty bribe running into crores as illegal gratification to BB Rajendra Prasad on his demand for a favourable order in the matter,” the CBI said.

The probe agency said Prasad had allegedly demanded a bribe of almost ₹2 crore. “CBI laid a trap and caught the said commissioner (Prasad) who had received part of the bribe — ₹19.34 lakh — from a real estate trade agent (Suresh Jain). Both the commissioner and Jain were arrested. During investigation, the remaining amount of ₹1.50 crore (approximately), earlier received by Jain on behalf of the commissioner was also recovered,” CBI said in a statement.

The FIR states that Essar group managing Pradip Mittal, was monitoring and felicitated the handing over of bribe to Prasad. The probe agency has also arrested Vipin Bajpai, an accounts officer in the company.

Essar denied the charges against its executives. “We deny all allegations regarding any misconduct by our executives ,” Manish Kedia, senior V-P, Essar Services said.