HYDERABAD: The Central GST office superintendent Bollineni Srinivasa Gandhi Chowdary and deputy commissioner of Central Taxes of Hyderabad GST office Ch Sudha Rani are understood to have registered cases against several reputed companies citing non-filing of GST, and collected huge amounts of bribe from them.
To evade the scrutiny of the Vigilance Department, the accused officials had sought bribes in the form of immovable assets, such as open plots and agriculture lands, from the managements of different companies.
The Union Finance Minister and senior officials, who received information about the activities in the Central GST office of Hyderabad, had issued orders for an internal inquiry in March, 2020. Even during the lockdown, the accused officers were allegedly busy collecting mamools from several companies.
Srinivasa Gandhi, who worked as a senior officer in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) a few years ago and was the investigation officer in YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s alleged illegal assets case, is learnt to have been influenced by deputy commissioner Sudha Rani. Together, they registered cases and arrested honchos of several companies for “defaulting payment of tax”.
During the internal inquiry by the anti-evasion wing of GST Central Taxes of Hyderabad, it was found that Srinivasa Gandhi had “purchased” huge open lands in Andhra Pradesh, especially in Amaravathi. In the internal report, it came to light that the purchases were made with ill-gotten money.
The CBI officials, who registered cases against Sudha Rani and Srinivasa Gandhi, found that while they were demanding `5 crore bribe from a businessman, the duo wanted the amount paid in open plots and agriculture lands on benamis.
The investigation agency would probe the case based on the internal report submitted by senior GST officials. The CBI officials would question the two officers, their family members and other suspects in the case.