Thane, March 31 A special CBI court in Thane has sentenced a former Income Tax officer to six months of rigorous imprisonment (RI) in a 19-year-old case involving accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a person to finalize a tax assessment.
Special Judge (CBI) D S Deshmukh also imposed a fine of Rs 4,000 on the accused, Deenanath Krishna Puthran (77), in the order dated March 27, following a trial that lasted more than 18 years.
A Chartered Accountant and a tax assistant accused in the case were acquitted due to a lack of direct evidence.
The case dates back to 2007, when Puthran was serving as an Income Tax officer at Vashi in Navi Mumbai.
Samraj Naikar, Managing Director of M/s Shree Laxmi Electricals and Consultants Pvt Ltd, lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) Anti-Corruption Bureau, alleging that Puthran was harassing him and demanding Rs 40,000 to finalize the scrutiny of his company's tax files and those of his wife.
On January 3, 2007, a CBI team caught Puthran after he accepted a negotiated sum of Rs 20,000. The investigating agency also charged Chartered Accountant Jayant Dattatray Adhyapak for alleged conspiracy and then tax assistant Prakash Gunaji Nevrekar for allegedly accepting an additional Rs 1,000.
The complainant had alleged that Puthran initially demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 and later it was negotiated to Rs 40,000, as per the court order.
The prosecution has successfully established the allegation against the accused of demanding illegal gratification of Rs 20,000 and accepting it from the complainant by abusing his position as a public servant, the judge said.
During cross-examination, the complainant admitted that while submitting his written complaint to the CBI, he had not made any contention about the other accused abetting him, the court said while acquitting Adhyapak and Nevrekar.