CHENNAI: CBI has arrested an assistant valuation officer (AVO), Income Tax valuation cell, Chennai, and an auditor/chartered accountant for their alleged involvement in a bribery case of Rs 2.25 lakh. According to a CBI press release, a property owner declared in his Income Tax Returns high-value transactions for his property in Chennai. This was referred to the Income Tax valuation cell by National Faceless Assessment Centre (National e Assessment Centre), New Delhi.
The assistant valuation officer (AVO) inspected the property and observed a discrepancy between the declared sum and the value of the property. The competent authority in finalising the valuation was a superintending engineer (planning), CPWD, Chennai, who was holding the charge of district valuation officer (DVO), I-T valuation cell, Chennai. The valuation-cell officials demanded a bribe of Rs 3.50 lakh from the property owner for showing official favour. The owner then sent the money through his auditor to the AVO.
CBI intercepted the AVO and the auditor when the bribe was paid. An amount of Rs 2.25 lakh was recovered from the AVO and the favourable letter/order for the property was recovered from the auditor. Searches were carried out on the premises of the suspects, leading to the recovery of incriminating documents. A sum of Rs 9 lakh was found with the AVO and Rs 1.25 lakh with of the auditor. It was alleged that the Rs 1.25 lakh, out of the Rs 3.50 lakh, was taken by the auditor as his charges.