JAJPUR: A day after extensive searches at five locations, Vigilance sleuths on Sunday arrested assistant commissioner of CT & GST, Enforcement Unit, Jajpur Road, Binay Bhusan Tripathy and his two associates (private persons) on charges of bribery, evasion of taxes and causing loss to the state exchequer to the tune of over Rs 5.85 lakh.
The other accused, who were arrested along with Tripathy are Jyoti Pattnaik, who falsely claimed ownership of the goods and Md Golam Sad, a scrap dealer, who received the goods. On May 7, Tripathy had intercepted a goods vehicle carrying MS scrap weighing around 22,240 kg worth Rs 8,89,600, at Ravana in Jajpur. He detained the vehicle at a dhaba on NH, contacted its owner and demanded Rs 2.5 lakh as bribe from him to release it. When the demand for bribe was not met, he sold the entire scrap to another dealer in violation of GST laws. Tripathy then collected the tax but misappropriated the balance amount of Rs 5,85,356, a Vigilance release said.
The investigation revealed he had been parking the bribe money as cash deposits in various bank accounts of his family members and later converting them into fixed deposits. “While one such account was opened in the name of his father Madhab Tripathy, the latter denied any knowledge of it. The bank passbooks have been seized from the assistant commissioner,” it said.