• Notification Date: 12-06-2023
• Notification No: N/A

ED Arrests Additional Commissioner of Income Tax under PMLA for receiving Rs 30 Lacs Bribe

Santosh Karnani, Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 2, 2023 for violating the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 by accepting a bribe of Rs. 30 lakhs. The commissioner must be in custody to unveil the whole conspiracy and identify and trace the proceeds of crime, The ED investigation found that the suspect Santosh Karnani demanded and accepted a bribe payment of Rs. 30 Lacs from M/s Safal Constructions Pvt. Ltd. ‘s Rupesh Balvantbhai Brahmbhatt through the Angadia firm Dhara Angadia. It was further discovered that the stated account kept with the aforementioned Angadia Firm was the subject of many suspicious transactions totaling at least Rs. 4.25 crore in 2021 and 2022. 

Under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, ACB, Gandhinagar against the commissioner. The Enforcement Department completed the inquiry based on the FIR and determined it to be authentic. 

The Special PMLA Court of Ahmedabad granted the custodial interrogation of the Additional Commissioner of Income Tax till 09.06.2023 to the Enforcement Directorate. The investigation is still ongoing, and the details will be revealed soon after the interrogation. 

Recently, the CBI has arrested the former Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) related to bribery of Rs.30 Lakh. The arrested accused was produced before the CBI Special Court, Ahmedabad and was remanded to Police Custody till 17.04.2023. 

A Customs officer of Kolkata was also arrested recently for demanding & accepting a bribe of Rs.50,000 from the Complainant. According to the allegations, the accused initially asked the complainant for an unlawful payoff of Rs. 3,00,000 through a Customs House Agent (CHA) in exchange for the release of the cargo of the complainant’s company, which was imported from China.