ACB catches I-T official taking Rs 25k bribe

Vijayawada: Anti-Corruption Bureau (

ACB

) sleuths caught an income tax official red-handed when he was accepting

bribe

from a person at Anantapur on Thursday.

The accused was identified as A Raja Sekhar, an office superintendent at Ward 3 office. The ACB sleuths said that they had received a complaint from Niranjan Babu, an auditor based in Anantapur town. He alleged that the official demanded Rs 25,000 bribe to process his file for 20% income tax refund, which was already deposited by him.

Niranjan’s client Tammineni Jaya Veeranjaneyulu 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. Further the income tax officer of ward 3 passed orders on December 4, 2017 to Veeranjaneyulu to pay income tax of Rs 10.45 lakh on capital gains.

Later, Veeranjaneyulu approached Niranjan who made an appeal to the commissioner of income tax (appeals) on behalf of him and deposited 20% of the demanded tax, Rs 2.09 lakh, as per rules.

On November 26, the appellate authority had passed orders favourable towards the Veeranjaneyulu and stated that there was no need to pay the disputed income tax of Rs 10.45 lakh.

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 Raja Sekhar demanded the amount.

The ACB officials booked him under prevention of corruption act and placed him under

arrest

.