CBI Hands 5-Year Jail & ₹63L Fine for Central Excise and Service Tax Inspector holding ₹57L Disproportionate Assets
The CBI Court also sentenced the officer’s wife to one year of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of ₹50,000.
The Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Ahmedabad, yesterday (29 December 2025) convicted an inspector with the Central Excise and Service Tax department after being convinced that he and his wife amassed assets amounting to about ₹57 Lakhs, which were deemed to be ‘disproportionate assets’.
Kaushik Anvantrai Karelia, the convicted officer was priorly an Appraiser/Preventive Officer discharging duties at Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ) and was presently serving as Inspector, Central Excise and Service Tax, Bhavnagar.
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Initial investigation against the officer pointed towards an excess income of about 130% which was absolutely disproportionate to their known sources of income of ₹19,86,661, amassed during the period from September 1, 2008 to March 31, 2013 and a case was registered against the accused by the CBI on September 30, 2013.
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During further investigation, the check period was revised to April 1, 2004 to March 20, 2013, and the CBI found that Karelia and his wife had accumulated assets worth ₹57,60,729.15, which was 183.57% in excess of their lawful income. Following the completion of the probe, a chargesheet was filed on September 3, 2014 against both accused.
Following trial, the officer was convicted on 29 December, 2025 to five years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) and a fine of ₹63 lakh. The Court also sentenced his wife, Pooja Karelia, to one year of imprisonment along with a fine of ₹50,000 for abetment of the offence.
Much like all other releases, the matter was released by the Central Bureau on X (formerly Twitter) where people of the general public expressed their comments.
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A common theme across most comments were of people commenting against the decision, that a complete clean sweep of the departments would result in the CBI catching much ‘bigger fish’ who deal with bigger amounts in play.
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