Lucknow, March 19 The Allahabad High Court has rejected the bail plea of an IRS officer, who was posted as the CGST deputy commissioner in Jhansi, in connection with a Goods and Services Tax (GST) bribery case involving an amount of Rs 1.5 crore.
The Lucknow bench of the court passed the order on March 10 on the bail application of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Prabha Bhandari.
The bench of Justice Rajeev Singh said that no grounds for granting bail were made out in view of the material on record, including a recorded conversation allegedly linking the officer to the bribery transaction.
According to the prosecution, Bhandari, who was posted as the deputy commissioner, Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), in Jhansi, along with other officials, had demanded a bribe of Rs 1.5 crore from businessmen to settle a case of GST evasion.
During a raid conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an amount of Rs 70 lakh was recovered from another accused officer.
The applicant in her bail plea argued that no direct recovery was made from her and the case was largely based on statements of co-accused Ajay Sharma, a CGST superintendent.
It was also submitted that the applicant is pregnant and has a one-year-old child, and that the investigation has already been completed with the filing of a chargesheet.
Opposing the bail, the CBI relied on a recorded WhatsApp call between the applicant and a co-accused, which it claimed indicated acknowledgment of the bribe amount and discussions about converting it into gold.
The CBI argued that there existed a complete chain of circumstantial and electronic evidence and alleged that the applicant did not cooperate during the investigation.
Rejecting the plea, the bench observed that the evidence on record did not justify the grant of bail at this stage. However, considering that the accused is a woman, the judge directed the lower court to expedite the trial and avoid unnecessary adjournments.