Chandigarh: High-profile bribe case accused files plea for bail in CBI court

Harsh Kotak, one of the accused persons arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a high-profile bribery case, has applied for bail before the CBI court. The latter has issued notices to the CBI for filing a reply by July 1.

Harsh was arrested by the CBI on May 31 for allegedly accepting Rs 25 lakh from a businessman, Sanam Kapoor, on behalf of an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Amit Kumar Singal.

In the bail application filed through advocates Nikhil Ghai, Avneet Cheema and Prakul Kashyap, the accused said that he had been falsely implicated in the case. He claimed that the false case had been filed to exhort money and wriggle out of the legal liability to pay Rs 1 crore due to some previous business arrangement.

The CBI had laid a trap following a complaint filed by Kapoor, director of a company and franchise owner of La Pino’z Pizza. Kapoor alleged that Singal had demanded a bribe of Rs 45 lakh for no further action by the Income Tax Department. Of this amount, Rs 25 lakh was allegedly accepted as the first instalment.

The complainant alleged that he met Singhal in Delhi in April, where the officer demanded Rs 45 lakh for solving the matter. He said that it was here that Harsh was introduced for taking the payments.

Later, the CBI arrested Singhal from his residence in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, in the wee hours on June 1. It claimed that Singal confessed to making a bribe demand of Rs 45 lakh from Kapoor and later accepted Rs 25 lakh through Harsh.

Singal 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 2024. He suspected that due to a grudge against him the officer targeted him with an income tax notice on February 18 and harassed him.