A nine-month long investigation into the alleged irregularities in the income-tax (I-T) department that led to the arrest of five income-tax officers (I-TOs) and a chartered accountant (CA) for misusing their powers and collecting kickbacks from taxpayers marked one of the major operations by the CBI’s ACB wing in Hyderabad in the last one year.
The anti-corruption bureau of the CBI of Telangana has registered 10 cases in the last one year. All these cases are under investigation and some of the cases have been sent to trial to get conviction of accused officers.
Interestingly, the CBI obtained complaints from victims against officers from income-tax (IT), GST and customs wings about demanding bribes. One of the complaints in the I-T department was by its own employee. This led the CBI to undertake a thorough investigation and crack the whip against errant IT officers.
Sources said that one Anand Ramasamy, salaried employee from Hyderabad, had brought the issue of illegal activities of I-T officers to the notice of CBI officers. Although he has been filing his returns for several years now, recently, he was approached by a senior tax assistant, Quamar Ali Khan on phone for examination of his old processed ITRs and called him to his office and demanded proof of exemptions that were claimed. He sent all the hard copies of the proofs to his office address by post, but the I-T officer allegedly started demanding bribes.
“The incident took place on June 3, 2024. Based on the complaint, the CBI registered cases and took up a probe. During the investigation, it was established that Quamar Ali Khan and other I-T officers had misused the data of taxpayers. This led to the arrest of five more IT officers and a chartered accountant,” sources said.
Similarly, CBI officials are probing the case in which the RGIA customs officers took bribes from a passenger who had arrived from abroad.
Meanwhile, many GST officers working in different locations are understood to have violated rules and collected bribes from businessmen in the name of GST related issues.
Box: I-T department cases
June 3, 2024: CBI registeres case against senior tax assistant of the income-tax department Quamar Ali Khan for demanding bribes. The CBI initiated a probe and arrested five I-T officers and a CA for misusing taxpayers’ details.
March 27, 2025” CBI conducted raids and found that the I-T officers collected the bribe amounts through digital payments.
Box: RGIA customs officers
January 2, 2025: CBI officers registered cases against Vinay Kumar and Mukesh Kumar, inspectors, customs and central excise; Santosh Kumar, assistant manager of ministry of finance, for accepting bribes from a passenger in RGIA. A CBI investigation is underway.
Box: GST officers
August 12, 2024: The CBI registered cases against GST officials V. D. Anand Kumar and Manish Sharma alleging harassment and extracting `5 lakh for threatening to impose GST fine for alleged irregularity. Similarly, the CBI arrested a GST officer in Medak for demanding bribes from a businessman a few days ago.
Box: Postal, railways under the lens
The CBI registered cases related to diversion of postal department funds in Nalgonda and other places.
The CBI received complaints from contractors of South Central Railway against the officers. Two senior officers were arrested under graft charges.
Source from: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/southern-states/telangana/hyderabad-cbi-targets-errant-i-t-and-gst-officials-1870733
