VIJAYAWADA: Sleuths of Anti-Corruption Bureau caught an income tax official red-handed while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 from a complainant at Anantapur on Thursday.
According to ACB officials, the accused is A Raja Sekhar, an office superintendent at Ward 3 office, Anantapur. Niranjan Babu, an auditor based in Anantapur, filed a complaint with the ACB claiming that Rajasekhar had demanded Rs 25,000 as bribe for processing his request to refund 20 per cent Income Tax refund already deposited by his client.
Niranjan’s client Tammineni Jaya Veeranjaneyulu had received a notice from the I-T department to pay income tax on capital gains shown in the IT returns for the assessment year 2012-13. The income tax officer of Ward 3 passed orders on December 4, 2017 asking Veeranjaneyulu to pay income tax of Rs 10,45,230 lakh on capital gains.
Then, Veeranjaneyulu approached Niranjan who made an appeal to the commissioner of income tax (appeals), Kurnool, on behalf of him and deposited 20 per cent of the demanded tax Rs 2,09,046 to the IT department as per rules. On November 26, the appellate authority passed orders favourable towards Veeranjaneyulu and stated that there was no need to pay the disputed income tax of Rs 10,45,230.
Based on the orders, Niranjan on behalf of his client sought the reimbursement of Rs 2.09 lakh deposited to the IT department for which Rajasekhar demanded the amount. The accused officer was arrested and produced before ACB Court, Kurnool, officials added.
This is the second time that the ACB officials trapped a Central government employee after general consent was withdrawn to the CBI by the State government.