This scheme was introduced by the Finance Ministry to reduce corruption and increase transparency in tax assessments.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the CBI custody of a senior Income Tax officer and a chartered accountant who were arrested in a bribery case related to the government’s “faceless” Income Tax assessment scheme.
The faceless scheme aims to eliminate direct contact between taxpayers and tax officials. It is called “faceless” because the taxpayer does not know or see who is assessing their tax file.
The accused — Vijayendra Ramchandra Murthy, a Deputy Commissioner in the Income Tax Department, and Dinesh Kumar Agarwal, a chartered accountant — were brought before the court on Tuesday after their three-day CBI custody ended. They had been arrested in connection with taking bribes to pass favourable assessment orders.
The court of Principal District and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna extended their custody by two more days, although the CBI had asked for five days.
The judge said:
“Considering the nature of facts of the case, further two days police custody remand of accused persons namely Dinesh Kumar Agrawal and Vijayendra Ramchandra Murthy is granted for the purpose of effective investigation of the matter.”
The court ordered that both accused be presented again on May 1.
The CBI told the court that during the earlier custody, it had uncovered some new facts that required more questioning and investigation. It also said it needed to verify and analyse a large amount of electronic data.
In its application, the agency said that the FIR (First Information Report) also named other people who now need to be questioned together with the arrested accused.
The CBI added that it was investigating further to:
“ascertain the modus operandi of commission of offences”.
However, Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, who is representing Vijayendra, strongly opposed the CBI’s request. He questioned the need for more custody and said:
“When all the facts and material were under CBI’s control, why was it seeking more custody without any justification.”
Earlier, on April 26, the court had first sent the accused to CBI custody after their arrest.
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Vijayendra, who belongs to the 2015 batch of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and was posted at the Jhandewalan Income Tax Office in Delhi, was arrested from the national capital. Agarwal was arrested in Bharuch, Gujarat.
The CBI investigation has revealed that the two had contacted several taxpayers who had pending high-value cases, offering to issue favourable orders in exchange for bribes.
