The Special Judge for CBI case S. Bajrang Babu on Monday convicted an Income Tax Officer for demanding and accepting a bribe.
The accused A. Venkata Subrahmanya Sastry, an ITO, Ward-I, Eluru in West Godavari district had allegedly received Rs.5,000 as illegal gratification by abusing his official position as a public servant.
The CBI filed a charge sheet on September 30, 2004 against him before the CBI Special Court here for the offences under Section 7 and 13(2) read with 13 (1) (d) of PC Act , 1988 on December 4, 2004. According to the charge sheet, the accused demanded the bribe through an auditor K.K.S. Swamy to process the income tax returns of two lecturers in Sir C.R. Reddy College V. Venkata Rao and V. Ramabrahmam (complainants).
The accused was caught red-handed while demanding and accepting the bribe to process the income tax returns for the assessment year for 2003-04. The Special Judge granted pardon to the auditor in this case and transposed him as a prosecution witness.
After the regular trial, the trial court found Sastry guilty and sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for two years and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000 and to further undergo simple imprisonment for two months for each of the offences under Section 7 and 13(2) read with 13(1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in default of payment of the fine.
