CBI courts convict officials in graft cases

New Delhi: In a 12-year-old case, a special CBI court in Mumbai has sentenced an Income Tax officer to five years of rigorous imprisonment for demanding bribe to avoid complications in the tax matters of a complainant.

The judge found Rajiv Kumar, then Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, guilty of demanding Rs four lakh bribe and sentenced him to undergo five-years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 30,000. "A case was registered against the Assistant Commissioner of I-T, Mumbai on a complaint. The complainant had alleged that the accused demanded a bribe of Rs one lakh to avoid complications in his income tax matters. Later on, the accused enhanced his demand of bribe from Rs one lakh to Rs four lakh," a CBI spokesperson said. The probe agency laid a trap and the accused was caught red handed while accepting a Rs 25,000 as a part amount of the bribe. In another case, special CBI court convicted Arvind Vijeta Mittal, the then Senior Divisional Engineer Central Railway, Mumbai, for amassing assets disproportionate to known source of his income. The court sentenced him three-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 75,000. His wife, Anjali Mittal, was also handed one-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000. It was alleged that the duo had amassed assets to the tune of Rs 12.6 lakh disproportionate to Arvind`s known source of income. PTI