I-T officer held for graft in police custody for 5 days

Having recovered assets comprising of cash worth Rs 23 lakh, two bricks of gold of 1 kg each, 16 bank accounts and other investment-related documents, a special CBI Court on Wednesday remanded Income Tax (IT) Officer Rakesh Jain to five days of police custody. The IT officer was arrested from his Sector 22 residence on Tuesday by CBI sleuths for allegedly demanding and accepting an illegal gratification of Rs 50,000.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been granted custody on the grounds that the accused has not revealed the names of other persons who were to benefit from the alleged bribe money. The accused is also to be questioned about the source of his assets, especially the cash and gold.

The counsel for the accused said that the entire conversation which the CBI has presented did not have the mention of Rs 50,000. Jain, while presenting his case in the court also said, "The money was not an illegal gratification but the amount which he (the complainant) had to pay as his accounts were frozen due to his lapse in paying a tax of Rs 91 lakh". He also said that the cash and gold belonged to his father who had sold his assets recently.

For the conversation which was read out by a CBI sleuth (see box), the accused said, "This was a response to one of the questions in the 46-point questionnaire which I had to get replies to, for all those who were failing to pay their income-tax".

"There is a list of pending cases of persons who failed to pay their income-tax returns. I call their counsels on a regular basis as we also have to meet our targets. This is the reason why I had called Ashok Arora," Jain said in the court.

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