Mumbai News: CBI Court Grants Bail To 2 Lawyers Arrested For Allegedly Delivering ₹22 Lakh Bribe In GST Probe

Mumbai: The special CBI court has granted bail to two lawyers namely Ram Sevak Singh and Sachin Kumar Gupta, arrested while allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 22 lakh to a Superintendent of the GST Intelligence Directorate on behalf of a client firm.

Custodial Interrogation Not Required

The court while granting bail to the two observed that the custodial interrogation of the two is not required and hence there is no justified ground for rejection of the bail plea.

Background of the Case

The two were arrested on the complaint of an Intelligence Officer, who was probing the case of GST non-compliance of offshore online betting websites. During the probe, the officer came across, he found one UPI ID having banking name Artimbe. It was Private Limited and the said UPI ID was common to all the websites under scanner. The officer accordingly collected details of Artimbe and one Nitin Kapoor. He sought deals of the accounts from them.

Alleged Bribe Transaction

Soon the officer received a call from the lawyer, namely Priyanka, representing the firm, and asked for a meeting to settle the case. However, when he refused to meet, the officer received a call from one Abhishek Katiyar on August 15, who introduced himself as a GST officer posted at Mumbai.

The complainant claimed that Abhishek offered to pay Rs 22 lakhs as bribe to close the inquiry and the payment was to be made in Delhi. The officer, however, lodged the complaint with CBI against the lawyer and Abhishek with CBI.

It was alleged that Singh and Gupta were instructed to deliver the bribe amount. They were caught red handed on September 1, while they were giving a bribe to the complainant. The two had moved bail claiming that they had been falsely implicated.

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Court Observations

The plea was objected by the prosecution claiming that the lawyer Priyanka and Katiyar are absconding that the two were found actively involved in the case. The court however, said that the two are not named in the complaint and their mobile phones are already seized. They have no criminal antecedents. Hence the two were granted bail.

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