Gujarat ACB Nabs CGST Officers in Rs. 1.25L Bribery Case

Ahmedabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Gujarat has nabbed a Superintendent of Central Tax (Class 2 officer), a CGST Audit Inspector (Class 3), and their accomplice in a bribery case involving a sum of Rs. 1.25 lakh in the city.

The complainant and his brother were running a jewelry (gold-silver) firm. The accused, Mohammad Rizwan Shaikh, working as Superintendent of Central Tax, issued a notice to the firm about conducting an audit of the firm’s accounts for the period from July 2017 to March 2023. Subsequently, another accused, Kuldeep Mulchand Kuswah, Inspector CGST, visited the complainant’s firm and instructed the complainant to visit the office with the necessary documents related to the audit. When the complainant went to meet the accused at their office, he was told that he was liable to pay a penalty of Rs. 35 lakh.

The complainant requested the details of the penalty from the accused to be sent to his lawyer. However, the accused provided an estimate of Rs. 27,000 and demanded a bribe of Rs. 1.25 lakh to reduce the fine.

As the complainant did not want to pay the bribe, he reported the matter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which set up a trap. During the operation, Bhowmikbhai Bharatbhai Soni, an accomplice of the accused Shaikh, was caught accepting the bribe money. All the accused have been detained, and further action is being taken