Odisha: Senior tax officer arrested in bribery case

Bhubaneswar, Oct 29 (IANS) Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday arrested a senior tax officer red-handed after he caught him accepting bribe from a businessman to waive off the penalty imposed for non-payment of professional tax for three financial years.

The accused officer, Umakant Mahakur, is currently posted as Assistant CT and GST Officer at Titlagarh in Balangir district.

Odisha Vigilance said in an official press statement that Mahakur was arrested by anti-corruption officials on October 29 for accepting a bribe of Rs 12,000 from a businessman.

The IT further said that the bribe was demanded by Mahakur to waive the penalty imposed on the complainant (businessman) for non-payment of professional tax for three financial years.

The complainant had failed to pay professional tax at the rate of Rs 7,500 (Rs 2,500 per annum). For non-payment, he was served a notice by the accused officer to pay Rs 23,600 including tax, penalty and interest.

“Upon receiving the notice, the complainant met Mahakur and requested him to accept only the tax amount. However, the accused officer refused to do so and instead demanded a bribe of Rs 12,000 to waive the penalty and interest. Not willing to pay the bribe, the complainant reported the matter to vigilance officials. Acting on the complaint, a trap was laid by the Odisha vigilance team on October 29,” the vigilance department said.

During the trap, the accused officer Mahakur was caught red-handed in his office room while taking bribe money from the complainant.

The entire bribe amount was recovered from his possession in the presence of witnesses and confiscated.

Following the trap, Odisha Vigilance conducted simultaneous searches at his government quarters in Subarnapur, his house at Gandhinagar Pada in Balangir and his office room in Titlagarh.

The accused officer has been arrested and will be produced in court on Thursday. A case in this regard was registered on October 28 under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.

–IANS

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