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million. Nageswara Rao, acting head of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), ordered the closure of a file registered by the agency against nine income tax officials (IT) and a chartered accountant based in Chennai. could potentially be subject to review by the Supreme Court, which asked him not to make any significant decision.
Rao denied the accusation.
In June 2016, CBI's Chennai branch registered one case against nine I-T officials and three others and carried out searches in 17 localities in several cities. The defendants included I-T officials of the rank of chief commissioner, commissioner and additional commissioner. They were accused of seeking favors – five-star hotel stays, luxury car travel, and airfare – from a chartered accountant based in Chennai, China. place to help his clients.
The 2016 case was an offshoot of another case registered a year ago against the same chartered accountant and an IT manager posted to Chennai.
"During the first investigation, the agency uncovered evidence indicating that other IT managers would even have chartered accountant and his sons. As a result, the second case was registered against nine IT managers in 2016, "said a CBI official who was aware of the case and asked not to be identified.
In March, the CBI branch in Chennai, then headed by Rao, decided to close the case in "no evidence" and IWC director Alok Verma, as "authority" competent ", gave its approval, according to documents seen by Hindustan Times.
However, Verma appears to have changed later.
The IWC official quoted above stated that Alok Verma had gone to Madurai on June 7 for the inauguration of a new branch of the IWC. During his visit, he "reviewed cases in the Chennai Branch and gave oral instructions to reopen the case and conduct a new investigation".
This is confirmed by the file sent by Praveen Sinha, the additional director currently at the head of Chennai. Branch of the CBI, to the Acting Director on November 8th. The annotations in the Sinha record clearly mention Verma's oral instructions in June and ask for permission to proceed. Hindustan Times saw Sinha's log file.
It is not known why a file ordered by the director to reopen in June was not transferred until November.
In response to Sinha's request, Rao cites his earlier decision on March 13 and orders the closing of the case.
In response to a detailed HT e-mail inquiring whether the acting director's decision to circumvent Alok Verma's oral instructions violated the Supreme Court's instructions, the IWC spokesperson said: "After the investigation of the case, for lack of evidence, it was decided on March 13, 2018 by the director Alok Verma to close the case. The matter has now been brought before the acting director for a new investigation into the case. If the interim director had approved the reopening of the investigation, that would have constituted a decision of principle violating the guidelines of the honorable Supreme Court. "
On October 23, CBI Director Verma and MP Rakesh Asthana were both desisted from their responsibilities after a bitter war between them threatened to split the agency in the middle. Supreme Court At the time, the court had declared that Rao would not make any political decision.
When asked to clarify the oral instructions of Alok Verma in June to reopen the case. , the spokesman refused to add anything to his statement.
First published: Nov. 27, 2018 01:43 IST
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