14 charged, four arrested by CBI

CBI filed chargesheet against 14 people The agency has arrested 4 officers in connection with the case on Friday

New Delhi, Sept. 8: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a chargesheet against 14 persons, including the then principal commissioner of I-T, Ranchi, four IT officers and nine others in connection with a bribery case.

The CBI has also arrested four IT officers, besides the then principal commissioner, Ranchi, in connection with the case, it said on Friday.

On July 10, the central probe agency had registered an FIR against several IT officers in Ranchi, including the principal

commissioner, on charges of criminal conspiracy, accepting illegal gratification, criminal misconduct etc.

The principal commissioner, Tapas Kumar Dutt, was arrested by the central probe agency on July 12. The agency has now arrested four more IT officers — Ranjit Kumar Lal, Sunil Kumar Gupta, both posted at Ranchi, Tarun Roy, posted at Koderma, and Vinod Kumar Pal, posted at Hazaribagh in connection with the case, a CBI spokesperson said here.

He added that a chargesheet was filed in a special court at Ranchi on Friday against Dutt, Lal, Gupta, Roy, Pal and nine others under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The officers, in connivance with the principal commissioner, were allegedly providing undue favours to businessmen, who were slapped with a heavy tax liability, in return for huge bribes, the CBI spokesperson said.

Following the FIR, raids were conducted at 23 (18 in Kolkata, five in Ranchi) premises of the accused persons.

“` 3.7 crore (approx.) in cash, 6.6 kg (approx.) of gold and some incriminating documents, including one related to a flat worth `4 crore (approx.), were recovered during the raids of the premises and a locker of the principal commissioner,” the CBI spokesperson said.