Raipur: On Friday, the CBI arrested two employees of the CGST department in Raipur for allegedly demanding ₹60000 from a pharmaceutical businessman as a bribe. The officials were identified as Superintendent Ilonka Minj and Inspector Soumya Ranjan Malik to have asked for the amount to resolve the issues in the GST related amount and to avail from any penalties.
As per the accounts, the CGST officials first compelled the businessman, Rahul Verma, to pay ₹3 lakh as a penalty for the alleged errors in GST returns. To sort the problem out, the officials demanded the amount of ₹ 75000 towards some sort of bribe. As a result of bargaining, both of them mutually decided on ₹60000 as the full reimbursement. Annoyed by the attitude of Verma, the CBI laid a trap and caught the two officials on the receiving end receiving the bribe.
This is the first time that CGST officials have been arrested on allegations of bribery in Chhattisgarh. It brings focus to corruption issues in government departments and underlines the need to have proper monitoring and surveillance mechanisms.
The CBI is now also probing whether the arrested officials were involved in such activities earlier and whether other employees of the department are associated with such scams. The agency is also scrutinizing case files and contact with other taxpayers for signs of any misconduct.
This paper should act as a cautionary to the seemingly unending struggle against corruption in offices of public leadership as well as the ability of agencies such as the CBI to ensure accountability. The media also call on taxpayers to report such incidents in order to protect the integrity of the system and the government. This move has created publicity for the fight against abuse of power, and the fight against corruption is a commitment of the government.
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