CBI names 5 CGST officials in charge sheet in ₹50 L bribery case

MUMBAI: The Mumbai unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a supplementary charge sheet against five senior Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) officers, including an additional commissioner and a joint commissioner from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), as part of its probe into an alleged ₹50-lakh bribery case registered on September 5 last year.

The five CGST officials named in the charge sheet, submitted in a Mumbai court recently, included additional commissioner Deepak Sharma, joint commissioner Rahul Kumar, and three superintendents including Nitin Gupta, Nikhil Agrawal and Bijendra Janawa, said CBI sources. The investigation agency had earlier submitted the main charge sheet against three other accused persons in the case, including a CGST superintendent.

The charge sheets were submitted after receiving necessary permissions from the finance ministry in Delhi, as required under the Prevention of Corruption Act, sources said.

The bribery case was registered in September 2024 against eight accused including six CGST officials, a chartered accountant and a consultant, based on a complaint lodged by a Goregaon-based businessman connected with a pharmaceutical trading firm.

The complainant had alleged that some CGST officials had confined him and subjected him to force and verbal abuse over 18 hours, demanding ₹80 lakh in return for not arresting him and favouring him in an on-going tax-evasion probe. After negotiations, the bribe amount was reduced to ₹60 lakh, of which ₹50 lakh was eventually paid, according to the CBI.

The businessman had alleged he was forced to call his cousin while under confinement to convey the demand and the cousin had contacted a chartered accountant, who further contacted a consultant and senior CGST officers.

In September 2024, CBI had arrested CGST superintendent Sachin Gokulka, chartered accountant Raj Agarwal and consultant Abhishek Mehta, allegedly during three trap/ controlled trap proceedings related to the acceptance of ₹20 lakh out of the bribe amount. The CBI subsequently also recovered the remaining ₹30 lakh bribe amount which was paid through hawala channels.

In October 2024, the CBI arrested five more accused CGST officials. While one of them, Kumar, was released on bail by a special court in Mumbai on bail on technical grounds, the other four were remanded in judicial custody.

Currently, all the accused, including six CGST officials and two private persons, are out on bail. They have all denied allegations of wrongdoing against them.