Excise Officer and Chartered Accountant arrested in a Bribery Case

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau, today arrested an Assistant Excise & Taxation Commissioner (AETC) sales tax (GST) mobile wing Harmeet Singh posted at Hoshiarpur and a Chartered Accountant (CA) Raman Sondhi red-handed for accepting a bribe of Rs. 2,00,000/- to settle a GST case.

The Vigilance Bureau said that the arrested persons were nabbed red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs.2,00,000 from complainant Tara Singh of village Talwandi Salan, Hoshiarpur district.

The complainant is the owner of a marriage palace. He alleged that the Assistant Excise & Taxation Commissioner (AETC) has been threatening and demanding a bribe of Rs. 7,00,000/- from him to settle his pending GST returns pertaining to last 11 months. He further informed that he had already paid Rs. 3,00,000 to him as a first instalment.

After verifying his information, the Vigilance team laid a trap and the accused AETC and the Chartered Accountant were arrested on the spot while accepting a bribe of Rs. 2,00,000/- of the second instalment from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses.

He informed that a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the accused at VB police station Jalandhar and further investigation was under progress.