Nagpur: The Special Court (CBI), on Tuesday remanded Mukul Patil, Joint Commissioner, Central Goods & Service Tax (CGST) and Hemant Rajandekar, Chartered Accountant, M/s V R Inamdar & Co, to magisterial custody. Bail application of the tainted duo, arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on corruption charges, would come up for hearing before the Special Court on Tuesday.
The CBI officers produced Patil and Rajandekar before the Special Court as their CBI custody remand ended on Monday. Seeking extension of their CBI custody remand by two more days, Inspector Kalyani Humane, Investigation Officer, submitted that probe on huge recovery of cash was in progress. Accused Patil by virtue of his official position may influence other officers of CGST to divert the investigation, she added. She stated that the investigation on movable and immovable properties of accused Patil was yet to be completed and there were reasonable grounds to believe that the accused had acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
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Friday 08 Nov. 2024
Strongly opposing to further remanding the accused duo to CBI custody, defence counsels Adv M B Naidu and Adv Pankaj Thakre (for accused Patil) and Adv Chandrashekhar Jaltare, Adv Abhisek Bhoot and Adv Milind Chaurasia (for accused Rajandekar) argued that their clients were already in the custody since March 3 and investigation in the matter was already over. Moreover, they argued that the CBI was given permission by Maharashtra Government only to probe into the complaint lodged by Jayant Laxmikant Choupane, Proprietor of M/s Jai Electricals & Electronics, district Yavatmal, against the accused CA.
After hearing both the sides, the court remanded the accused duo to magisterial custody. Soon, the defence moved their bail applications which would come up for hearing on March 8. CBI had caught Patil and Rajandekar red-handed while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from Choupane to get his service tax liability case disposed of.
After registering an offence under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code against them, the officers of the country’s premier investigation agency conducted searches and had seized allegedly unaccounted Rs 5.85 lakh cash from accused Patil’s office, besides several incriminating documents. The bureau officers also had seized Rs 7.40 lakh cash, and gold coins weighing 400 grammes from his residence. Two diaries mentioning some financial transactions in code words were also seized from the accused.
