Bengaluru CBI court convicts I-T officer, chartered accountant in 14-year-old bribery case

A CBI court in Bengaluru last week convicted an Income Tax officer and a chartered accountant in a 14-year-old bribery case. Judge Manjunath Sangreshi directed I-T officer V Nagaraj and chartered accountant Naginchand Kincha to undergo three years of simple imprisonment and fined them Rs 1 lakh each.

The case dates back to mid-2012 when the complainant A K Halim, a resident of J P Nagar in Bengaluru, informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that Nagaraj had been demanding a bribe from him in return for lowering his tax liability.

The complainant alleged that Nagaraj issued notices to him claiming that over Rs 3.28 crore in income “escaped assessment” while determining his tax liability for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 assessment years. When Halim appeared before Nagaraj on August 14, 2012, with supporting documents, he was allegedly told his actual tax liability would be around Rs 80 lakh – but that this could be brought down to Rs 30 lakh if he paid a bribe of Rs 20 lakh.

In September of that year, Nagaraj purportedly called Halim and asked him to hand over the bribe amount to Kincha. Thereafter, Halim approached the CBI and handed over recordings of his conversations. Based on Halim’s complaint, the CBI registered a case on September 8, 2012, and set up a trap operation the same day.

As part of the operation, Halim visited Kincha’s office, where Nagaraj was also present, and gave a pre-arranged signal – a phone call in which he said “please arrange train ticket” – alerting the waiting CBI team. Officers immediately raided the office and recovered the bribe money.

Both accused were arrested on the spot and released on bail two days later. Last week, the two were finally convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.