Three-year jail for former income tax commissioner

PATIALA: Demanding bribe from a Moga businessman for waiving a penalty cost a former income tax commissioner (appeals) dearly when a CBI court here sentenced him to three-year imprisonment.
As per sources, on getting some information about tax evasion in 2002 a team of IT officers had seized some files pertaining to transactions of M/s Anand Spring India Limited of Moga district.
���But when Mohinder Singh, owner of the company appeared before ML Dhussa, the then income tax commissioner (appeals ) of Ludhiana, who was later suspended following the revelation, demanded Rs 5 lakh to waive the penalty of Rs 20 lakh. The deal was finalized for Rs 3 lakh,��� Ram Lal Negi, counsel for CBI, told The Times of India.
Dhussa told Singh to pay Rs 2.50 lakh in advance to Deepak Chugh and the remaining after getting the waiver. Chugh further told him to pay the amount to Paramjit Singh Makkar, who is a resident of Jalandhar.
Meanwhile, Singh approached the CBI in Chandigarh and the agency formed special teams to nab the officers. On December 17, 2002, when Singh gave the money to Makkar and Chugh at the former���s house in Jalandhar, the CBI team raided the house and recovered the amount while another team raided the office of the commissioner in Ludhiana.
After hearing the arguments, HS Madan, special judge to CBI, sentenced Dhussa and Chugh to three years of imprisonment while Makkar was acquitted some time back. Besides, the commissioner was fined Rs 45,000 and Chugh Rs 25,000.