Aligarh: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested four officials of the Goods and Services Tax (CGST) office in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh for allegedly taking bribe of Rs 25,000 in lieu fo disposing official paperwork, officials said on Saturday. The accused have been identified as CGST Superintendent Kiran Pal Singh, associate inspectors Rohit Varshney, Pradeep Kumar and assistant Sanchit Chauhan.
An official said that the arrests were made following a complaint by one Rakesh Kumar Pandey, a resident of Etah. In his complaint filed with the CBI on October 4, Pandey alleged that in the name of disposal of the notice issued from Aligarh Lal Diggi office of CGST, CGST Superintendent Kiran Pal Singh had asked for a bribe of Rs 30,000.
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His associate inspectors Rohit Varshney, Pradeep Kumar and assistant Sanchit Chauhan had threatened that if the money was not given, the file would be sent to Lucknow, Pandey alleged in the complaint. However, later the matter was settled for Rs 25,000, he added. The complainant, who works as an LIC agent, alleged that he had been consistently receiving notices from the CGST Department since 2021, demanding a sum of Rs 1.70 lakh despite not having any firm registered any firm with a GST number.
Following the complaint by Rakesh Kumar, the anti-corruption team of CBI Ghaziabad Unit laid a trap and Superintendent KP Singh was arrested red-handed from the office while taking bribe of Rs 25,000 from Rakesh Kumar Pandey, an official said. On Thursday, the CBI team reached the office located at Lal Diggi in Aligarh.
During this time, KP Singh, Rohit, Pradeep, Sanchit were also present in the office. CBI collected evidence of the people involved in corruption. The CBI team also raided the houses of the four accused. On Friday, CBI presented all four in Ghaziabad Special CBI Court from where all four accused have been sent to jail for 14 days judicial custody.
The next hearing will be held on October 19.
