ACB nabs sales tax officer, railway man
Mumbai: The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested two persons—a Sales Tax official and a Central Railway employee for taking bribe.
Prashant Pandurang Satav, a sales tax officer, was nabbed by the ACB while accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000 from hotelier Fateh Bahaddur Singh. Satav, who is in charge of the Ghatkopar division, had demanded the money in return for giving Singh his tax return certificate.
Singh, a resident of Kalyan, is the owner of Triveni Bar and Restaurant in Kurla. According to Singh’s chartered accountant Hiten Lodhaya, he has been paying his sales tax regularly for the last three years.
A few days ago, Satav approached Singh through Lodhaya and accused him of filing lower tax returns. Satav then demanded Rs 30,000 to issue him a tax return certificate. Singh was instructed to take the money to Satav’s office in Konkan Bhavan at Navi Mumbai. Singh approached the ACB on Monday and informed them about Satav’s demand.
“Satav was caught while accepting the bribe in his office,” said Vilas Tupe, additional commissioner of police (ACB).
In a similar incident, an office superintendent of Central Railway’s Parel workshop was nabbed by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) while accepting a bribe of Rs 2,500.
The office superintendent, identified as Omprakash Tiwari, had demanded Rs 3,000 from a railway employee last week in return for allotting him a flat in the railway quarters. Tiwari is a member of the Central Railway’s House Allotment Committee. After bargaining with Tiwari, the railway employee got the bribe amount reduced to Rs 2,500. Later, he lodged a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Branch of the CBI.
Tiwari was arrested on Tuesday morning while accepting the bribe from the complainant. A panicky Tiwari tried to evade arrest by throwing the cash out of the window, but the currency notes with Tiwari’s fingerprints were recovered later.
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