GST Council superintendent arrested by CBI for receiving bribe through a close-aide

A superintendent of the newly-established GST Council has been arrested by the CBI for allegedly receiving bribe through one of his close aides.

Manish Malhotra, the superintendent, and Manas Patra, the alleged middleman, were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday evening, an official said.

This could be the first instance of a GST Council official being arrested by the central investigating agency.

It is alleged that Malhotra, who was earlier posted in Central Excise, has been indulging in corrupt practices of extending undue favours to private parties by not taking action against them in return for periodic bribes.

The agency came to know that Patra was allegedly establishing contact with the parties on Malhotra’s behalf and collecting illegal gratification on quarterly or monthly basis.

Patra deposited these funds in his own account to camouflage the bribe and later transferred the money to an HDFC Bank account of Malhotra’s wife Shobhna and his daughter Aiyushi’s account in ICICI Bank, the CBI FIR alleged.

The agency had received input that Patra was scheduled to deliver collections of the past few days at the residence of Malhotra yesterday, along with the paper containing details of receipt of bribes, a CBI official said.

The CBI team carried out search of the premises and arrested Malhotra and Patra along with the bribe money and some documents, he said.