Top I-T officer held for `2cr bribe

The CBI arrested incometax commissioner B.B. Rajendra Prasad in Visakhapatnam in connection with a bribery case and seized cash worth `1.5 crore from him.

The CBI suspects that the cash seized from the officials was part of `2 crore bribe, which he had sought from a Mumbaibased firm’s owner. Mr Prasad was posted in Mumbai as an I-T commissioner (Appeals-30) and is accused of seeking the bribe for passing an order in favour of a firm.

The bribe was for giving a favourable order to a private trust, whose trustee is the Essar Group, in an appeal matter. A case has been registered against Prasad and seven others including Essar Group of Companies MD Pradip Mittal, Essar Group accounts officer Vipin Bajpai, and Shreyas Parikh, chartered accountant for M/s G.K. Choksi. The others are real estate trade agent Suresh Kumar Jain and his relative Manish Jain.

According to the CBI, Mr Prasad recently passed an order in an appeal matter favouring a private trust is based in Mumbai. For giving this favourable order, he allegedly demanded a bribe of `2 crore and wanted the money to be delivered to the relative of a real estate agent in Mumbai, who transferred it to the real estate agent in Visakhapatnam.

Mr Prasad visited Visakhapatnam and allegedly demanded that Suresh Kumar Jain, deliver part of the money to his residence in the city.

Searches were conducted at the premises of the accused in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam.