The CBI has arrested a former assistant commissioner in the Income Tax department in a Rs 30 lakh bribery case where he allegedly aided his senior officer to escape a trap operation by the Gujarat ACB last year and threw his two mobile phones in a river to obliterate evidence, officials said on Monday.
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According to PTI, the probe agency, utilising state-of-the-art sonar technology, conducted a meticulous operation to retrieve the crucial evidence, which comprised of two mobile handsets, including one of Realme make, that had been callously discarded by former assistant commissioner Vivek Johri in the Sabarmati river.
A CBI spokesperson said, “Divers and other specialised agencies were employed, equipped with diving equipment and a remotely operated vehicle fortified with cutting-edge sonar technology, to successfully recover the incriminating mobiles.”
Johri, who was posted in Ahmedabad, was arrested in connection with a case registered on October 12 last year on a reference from the Gujarat government related to the bribery of Rs 30 Lakh, he said. “It was alleged that the then assistant commissioner of Income Tax had facilitated the escape of Additional Commissioner (Santosh Karnani) from his office by creating a ruckus during the trap proceedings on October 4, 2022 laid by the anti corruption bureau (ACB) of Gujarat,” the spokesperson said.
According to PTI reports, it was further alleged that Karnani, the then additional commissioner of Income Tax (Central Range-I), Ahmedabad, before escaping from the detection of the state ACB had handed over two mobile handsets to Johri, officials said. Johri allegedly disposed the handsets by throwing them in the Sabarmati river on the directions of Karnani.
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