Updated on: 5th MAY 2023 12:56 PM IST | Mumbai
S S NADAR | news@debotimes.in

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked a GST superintendent in a corruption case, along with a jeweller accomplice and his employee who purportedly collected a Rs 25 lakh bribe from a businessman for not arresting his bullion trader friend in an alleged tax evasion case.

All three accused - GST superintendent Dhirendra Kumar, jeweller Amritlal Sankhale and his employee Baban - are on the run.

CBI officers searched Kumar's houses in Mumbai and Patna.

On April 20, around 4 pm, Kumar and his team picked up the bullion trader for alleged GST evasion and brought him to the CGST office outside Churchgate station. They detained him for six hours and asked him to call his businessman friend - the complainant in the CBI case - for arranging Rs 1 crore to avoid his arrest.

The bullion trader called his businessman using a messenger service, but the latter said he could not arrange such a huge amount at such short notice. It is alleged that Kumar reduced the bribe demand to Rs 50 lakh and asked the bullion trader for the first instalment of Rs 25 lakh outside the GST office on the same night.

The businessman friend sensed trouble and approached the CBI in the evening. CBI officers laid a trap to nab Kumar red-handed and asked the complainant to follow the instructions of his bullion trader friend who was illegally detained.

The complainant reached the CGST office with money. Kumar then allegedly called his Antop Hill-based jeweller friend Sankhale to come to Dadar to collect the bribe money. Kumar took the bullion trader to Dadar and they were followed by the complainant in another vehicle. The CBI team also followed them from a safe distance.

At Dadar, Sankhale was waiting for Kumar who signalled the businessman to hand over the bag of cash to his jeweller friend who was waiting on a bike. Kumar then allowed the bullion trader to leave and drove away.

Sankhale, along with Baban who was riding pillion, collected the bag of money and rode away before CBI officers could catch them.

The CBI has collected CCTV footage from the CGST office and around the Dadar area as evidence to establish the bribery allegation. The agency has booked the three accused for hatching a criminal conspiracy, demanding bribes and abetment.