An arrested Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax allegedly demanded nearly Rs 6 lakh as bribe from businessman Vikas Singla to help him evade Rs 10 crore of tax, the CBI has claimed.
Sources said M Logapathy was arrested by the agency from his office after he allegedly received the last installment of Rs 1.5 lakh as bribe from Singla to help him dodge Rs 10 crore of tax demand raised against him.
The agency which started a surveillance on taxmen from March when returns are filed in large numbers intercepted conversations of Logapathy and Hitesh Kumar, an advocate who acted as middleman in the deal.
The sources said they got a fair bit of idea that the officer was allegedly demanding one per cent of the amount saved by an assessee.
It was only after confirming that an installment would be delivered to his office on April 15, the team carried out a search and seizure operation at CR Building of ITO where Logapathy's office is located.
The sources said the team disguised itself as assessees and staff of the I-T department to evade the security at the building and positioned themselves around the office.
As soon as Kumar emerged from the office after handing over the alleged bribe amount, the agency teams swung into action and arrested the official with a portion of money received by him, the sources said.
The remaining amount was understood to have been recovered from Abhishek Kumar, a personal attendant of Logapathy, who was working with the officer for last six years, they said.
The sources said documents related to a flat in upmarket Green Park locality in south Delhi, two shops in Karol Bagh, two houses in Puducherry and a house in Chennai were found during searches at the residence of Logapathy, an IRS officer of 2008 batch.
They said the agency has also recovered documents of bank lockers which are in the process of being opened even as the agency plans to start proceedings under disproportionate assets case against the officer.
