VISAKHAPATNAM: The officials of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Visakhapatnam branch, caught an income tax officer red-handed when he was accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000 from a person for granting an official favour, here on Tuesday. He was sent to remand on Wednesday.
B Srinivasa Rao, income tax officer of Ward-5, MVP Colony, Visakhapatnam, demanded a bribe of `1.5 lakh from a person for dropping the proceedings with reference to the notice issued to the later pertaining to sale of an immovable property, which needed payment of profit, a press note, released on Wednesday, quoted CBI (Visakhapatnam) SP R Gopala Krishna Rao as saying.
The person, who gave his plot for development to a builder, is yet to receive his share in 12 flats. But, the income tax officer issued notices to him calling for records. Rao demanded Rs 1.5 lakh to close the case without proceeding further. On December 1, the complainant requested the income tax officer to give some time to arrange the money, citing cash crunch owing to demonetisation.
With the bribe amount not being paid, the officer rang up the person on Tuesday (December 27) and pestered him to pay the amount in five installments of Rs 30,000 each. With this, the person lodged a complaint against Rao with the CBI officials, who laid a trap and caught him red-handed while accepting the amount. The CBI team also searched in the officer’s house and recovered several incriminating documents including cash of Rs 2.03 lakh.