A woman working as an Agriculture Income Tax and Commercial Tax officer here has been arrested on Thursday by Vigilance sleuths on charges of bribery.
According to official sources, the officer was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs.1,000 from a car wheel dealer. The dealer, the sources said, had been asked earlier to pay commercial tax returns of Rs. 27,000, against which he had filed a case. He had paid Rs. 9,000, one-third of the amount, as per rules before filing the case. With judgement on the case coming in his favour, the authorities had to pay him back the Rs. 9,000. However, the officer allegedly told him that he would get the amount only if she was paid a bribe of Rs. 2,000.
The dealer, who alleges that the same officer had taken Rs. 4,500 from him the previous year under similar circumstances, then approached Vigilance authorities, who laid a trap and arrested the officer apart from conducting a raid in her office.
A Vigilance team was examining all the records and files in the office and questioning the officer when reports last came in.
