The Central Burau of Investigation ( CBI ) has allegedly arrested three Central GST officials while accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000 from an advertising agency owner in Hisar on Friday.
The persons arrested have been identified as Inspector Purshottam and two Superintendents Prithvi Raj Meena and Ganpat Chauhan, posted in the audit section of the GST Department in Hisar. The CBI team took the three officials to Chandigarh at 2.30 am on Saturday after registering a case against them.
They were produced in the Special CBI Court in Panchkula that sent them to 14 days’ judicial custody.
Mahavir Godara, the complainant, who runs an advertising agency, informed the CBI that he had been imposed a penalty for default in the payment of service tax from 2013 to 2016. He deposited Rs 6.84 lakh some time ago. However, these officials continued to harass him and demanded a bribe of Rs 2 lakh.
“The audit officials used to threaten me saying that they had the authority to impose a higher penalty, so they asked me to pay the bribe. We finally settled the deal for Rs 70,000,” he said.
Godara decided to report the matter to the CBI, which immediately sent a team and laid a trap to nab the officials.
