CBI recovers ₹3.5 crore cash, 5 kg gold from Kolkata flat of I-T commissioner

The CBI on Wednesday recovered Rs 3.5 crore cash and 5 kg gold during searches at the Kolkata residence of Jharkhand's Principal Commissioner of Income Tax in a corruption case, the agency said.

The CBI searched 23 locations in Kolkata and Ranchi including the residential premises of Tapas Kumar Dutta and others, spokesperson R K Gaur said here.

Gaur said that Rs 3.5 crore cash and over 5 kg gold that worth around Rs 1.4 crore were being seized from Dutta's flat at Salt Lake's HB block.

Dutta was posted at Ranchi as Principal I-T commissioner during 2016-17. During his Ranchi posting, he had entered into a criminal conspiracy with additional CIT Arvind Kumar, ITO (Tech) Ranjeet Kumar, another I-T officer called Ganguly, Kolkata-based businessmen, entry operators and a chartered accountant.

In pursuance of the conspiracy, Dutta allegedly took huge illegal gratification from the businessmen through a chartered accountant to get the income tax assessment files of different assesses transferred from Kolkata/Hazaribagh to Ranchi, Gaur said.

During the search operation, the CBI officers found money in cash from under the bed, shoe racks, kitchen, toilet and even from behind photo frames in the flat of Dutta.

The CBI officers were later found carrying a currency counting machine into the flat. They took an hour to complete counting of the notes. Most of the notes were of Rs 2000 denomination.