BANGALORE: In a big relief to K Chandrika, who was working as assistant commissioner of income-tax at Bangalore circle, the Karnataka high court has acquitted her in a four-and-half year-old bribery case.
“It was a false complaint filed by the complainant after being aggrieved by an assessment order passed against his company by the officer. The CBI has miserably failed to establish the motive, the demand as well as the acceptance of the bribe and the order passed by the special court against her has resulted in failure of justice,” Justice H N Nagamohan Das has observed while setting aside the verdict of special court for CBI cases which had convicted as well as sentenced her to to three year’s rigorous imprisonment.
The judge also noted that the officer had in fact passed an assessment order on December 26, 2008, the date of alleged demand for bribe, clearly indicating concealment of Rs 3 crore by the complainant company and she had no authority under the law to review the same.
Chandrika had claimed that the complainant tried to offer some bundles of currency notes in her chamber and she pushed them away with her left hand in refusal and resulted in markings of phenolphthalein coated notes on her left hand.
The CBI had registered a case against her after she was caught ‘red-handed’ on January, 2009 while accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh as first instalment from one Rajesh Sawney, chairman of Vmoksha Technologies Private Limited.
The allegation was that she demanded a total Rs 10 lakh as bribe in return for concealing Rs three crore in IT returns filed by the company in relation to assessment year 2005-06.
