CGST official, wife get jail terms in ₹1.24 crore disproportionate assets case

MUMBAI: A special court on Thursday sentenced a former Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) superintendent and his wife to jail terms of four and two years respectively for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their income.

The court, while sentencing the accused officer, Prasiddh Dubey, 66, and his wife Vimla Dubey, 62, also imposed fines of ₹1 lakh each on them. The court said that both the accused were never in custody in this case and therefore, there was no question of any set - off under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The CBI registered a case against Dubey on February 20, 2018, based on source information from when he was working as Superintendent of Goods and Service Tax in Mumbai, on suspicions that he had amassed disproportionate assets. It was revealed that the accused was found to be in possession of assets worth ₹90.90 lakh which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The percentage of disproportionate assets was assessed during the check period - from June 17, 1994, to February 23, 2018, according to the CBI. CBI sources said that the CGST officer could not give a satisfactory explanation for the disproportionate assets. The assets under examination were in the names of the accused, the probe found.

The agency submitted its charge sheet on December 23, 2020, in the case. The designated CBI court framed the charges against the accused on June 16, 2022, and examined 100 prosecution witnesses to bring home the guilt of the accused. “The court, after completion of the trial, held both accused guilty and sentenced them accordingly,” a CBI source said.

The special court, which passed its order on Wednesday, said that the “prosecution has established their case to the hilt” against the two accused under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code. The court held that the prosecution proved its case that Dubey, being then a public servant, had acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and which he could not account for. His wife also aided and abetted her husband in amassing and acquiring the assets and held unexplained cash credits in her name, properties in her name.

The court ordered that the properties worth ₹1.24 crore, which are disproportionate assets, be forfeited to the state government of Maharashtra, after the appeal period is over. The percentage of the disproportionate assets allegedly came to 56.2%. The assets held by the two accused at the beginning of the check period were allegedly around ₹36.82 thousand, while they were worth around ₹2.22 crore at the end of it.