Graft case against excise officials

MUMBAI: The CBI has registered a case against Vidyadhar Joshi, superintendent, service tax, Central Excise at Akurdi, Pune and Vinaya Kale, inspector, service tax, Central Excise at Akurdi.
The duo has been accused of demanding a bribe of Rs 5 lakh for not levying service tax on a hall run by the complainant. The complainant told the CBI that the amount demanded was reduced to Rs 2.5 lakh.Joshi was caught accepting the first installment of Rs 1.25 lakh at the service tax office at Akurdi.
The probe revealed that PV Anghachekar, assistant commissioner of service tax, Akurdi and Vinaya Kale were involved in the case. They were arrested on May 22.
The accused had told the complainant that the latter’s total liability would be Rs 9.31 lakh, 25% penalty and interest thereon. The procedure involved issuance of show cause notice to the complainant, which couldn’t be taken back. A bribe of Rs 2.50 lakh was demanded to settle the matter. While cash worth Rs 2.62 lakh was recovered from Kale’s home, Rs 1 lakh in cash was seized from Joshi’s home.