HYDERABAD: The CBI on Saturday arrested five persons, including a high-ranking Income-Tax officer identified as Jeevan Lal Lavidiya, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 70 lakh to decide an appeal in favour of a private party.
A case was registered by CBI on May 9 against Lavidiya, working as Commissioner, Income Tax (Exemptions), Hyderabad, and 14 other persons/entities on the allegation that he, in connivance with middlemen, was indulging in massive corruption for extending illegal favours.
Lavidiya is also holding the additional charge of Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals Unit-8) and (Appeals Unit-7) in the office of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Hyderabad. This position gave him the power to decide appeals in favour of private parties.
Following the registration of the case, the CBI laid a trap and caught an accused middleman while accepting a bribe of Rs 70 lakh from a private party in Mumbai on behalf of Lavidiya. Consequently, Lavidiya and his associates were also arrested in Hyderabad.
Searches were conducted by CBI at 18 locations in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Khammam, Visakhapatnam and New Delhi which have led to the recovery of various incriminating documents/articles, including cash of Rs 69 lakh (approx), besides the bribe amount of Rs 70 lakh.
The accused were produced before the court for CBI cases in Mumbai, while the accused arrested in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were produced before the competent courts locally.
The other accused were identified as Sairam Palisetty of Srikakulam, Natta Veera Naga Sri Ram Gopal of Visakhapatnam, Viral Kantilal Mehta, DGM (Taxation), Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Mumbai, and Sajid Mazhar Hussain Shah of Mumbai.
Irrigation executive engineer in ACB net
HYDERABAD: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday caught an Irrigation Executive Engineer red-handed while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 60,000 from a complainant. The accused official has been identified as Arram Reddy Amarender Reddy. He accepted the bribe for clearing bills worth Rs 50 lakh related to a contract work, i.e construction of a check dam between Avunuru and Agraram villages in Rajanna-Siricilla district