Chartered Accountant, Income Tax Officer Convicted For Demanding Rs 65 Lakh Bribe During Demonetisation

A Chartered Accountant and a Class-II Income Tax Officer (ITO) from Dahod has been convicted and sentenced for four years for seeking bribes during the demonetisation period in 2017, Tax Scans reports.

According to reports, Dahod ITO Dinesh Lakhanlal Meena has been convicted for seeking a bribe of Rs 65 lakhs from a petrol pump owner for going easy against him and not to scrutinise land deals.

He was sentenced four years under Section 7 and another four years under section 13(1)(G) and 13(2)(G) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Meena has also been fined Rs 5,000. Ahmedabad Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials said that both the sentences would run together.

CA Bharatkumar Agarwal and another officer, Dinesh’s maternal uncle Lakshminaryan Meena, who was vital in destroying evidence in the case, have also been convicted.

Meena was assigned to scrutinise suspicious dealings at petrol pumps in Rajkot after demonetisation in 2016. However, he took this opportunity to ask for bribe from the complainant, Mukesh Kumar Ramanlal Mori, who also owns a petrol pump in Surendranagar.

Meena after looking into the land deals asked for Rs 65 lakh via CA Bharatkumar. Mori paid Rs 6 lakh as the first instalment but then approached ACB and filed a complaint.

The ACB officials set a trap, in which Bharatkumar was nabbed, but Meena and his uncle escaped and destroyed evidence. They were arrested months later and sent to jail without bail until Wednesday (2 April). The money they took in bribes is yet to be recovered.