Thane Special Court Grants Bail to IRS Officer and CGST Superintendent in Bribery Case

A Special Court at Thane on Friday rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation's plea for custodial interrogation and granted bail to IRS officer Vinay Kumar Kantheti, CGST Superintendent Rakesh Kumar Sinha, and a private individual, holding that their arrest was illegal.

Kantheti, an additional commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax in Raigad, along with Sinha and private individual Narinder Rajput, had been arrested by the CBI on Thursday. The agency alleged they accepted a Rs 40 lakh bribe from a businessman to settle a GST and royalty matter related to a stone-quarrying firm.

Defence lawyers Rahul Agrawal, Jasmin Purani, and Harsh Shah challenged the legality of the arrest, arguing that the CBI failed to comply with the mandatory requirement of communicating the grounds and reasons for arrest to the accused. The court agreed with the defence, noting that the CBI offered no satisfactory justification for custodial interrogation since the alleged bribe money and mobile phones had already been recovered.

According to the CBI, the officials had initially demanded Rs 1.5 crore before negotiating the sum down to Rs 40 lakh. Following a complaint, CBI investigators laid a trap and initially caught Rajput red-handed while accepting the Rs 40 lakh payment. Subsequent questioning led to the arrest of Sinha and Kantheti from their offices.

Searches conducted at the premises of the accused resulted in the recovery of an additional Rs 43 lakh in cash and jewellery valued at approximately Rs 90 lakh, with the majority recovered from Sinha's residence. The CBI, which had sought five days of police custody alleging systematic corruption, stated it possesses strong evidence against the trio and plans to challenge the bail order.