Chandigarh: IRS officer’s aide denied bail in bribery case

The CBI court here dismissed a bail application of Harsh Kotak, a co-accused in a high-profile bribery case.

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Harsh Kotak was arrested by the CBI on May 31 for allegedly accepting Rs 25 lakh from a businessman, Sanam Kapoor, on behalf of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Dr Amit Kumar Singhal. The CBI had laid a trap following a complaint by Kapoor, director of a company and the owner of La Pino’z Pizza franchisee.

The complainant had alleged that Singhal had demanded a bribe of Rs 45 lakh for not taking any further action on a notice issued by the Income Tax Department to the franchisee owner. Rs 25 lakh was allegedly accepted as the first instalment of the bribe.

The complainant alleged that he met Singhal in Delhi in April where the officer had demanded Rs 45 lakh for solving the income tax matter. He said Kotak was introduced to Kapoor for payments.

Later, the CBI arrested Singhal from his residence in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, in early hours of June 1.

The CBI claimed that Dr Singhal acknowledged that Rs 45 lakh was demanded as bribe from Kapoor and later Rs 25 lakh was accepted through Kotak.

Singhal was posted as Additional Director General at the Directorate of Tax Payers Services, Delhi.

The complainant alleged that he had business partnership with Singhal. However, due to contractual violations, he terminated all business ties in December last year. He suspected that due to a grudge against him, the officer targeted him with an income tax notice on February 18 this year and harassed him.

However, the counsel for Kotak claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case. They claimed that the false case was filed to extort money and wriggle out of the legal liability to pay Rs 1 crore due under the previous business arrangement. Opposing the bail application, the public prosecutor argued that the investigation in the case was still underway.

After hearing the arguments, the court dismissed Kotak’s bail application.