Nagpur: The tainted Joint Commissioner of Central Goods & Service Tax (CGST) Mukul Patil and Chartered Accountant Hemant Rajandekar have been granted bail by the Special CBI Court on Tuesday. Patil and Rajandekar had filed bail pleas after the court remanded them to magisterial custody on Monday.
The CGST Joint Commissioner and the Chartered Accountant were arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy after they were trapped while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 4 lakh from Jayant Laxmikant Choupane, Proprietor of M/s Jai Electricals & Electronics, district Yavatmal, to get his service tax liability case disposed of on March 3.
Gold Rate
23 April 2025
During searches, CBI had seized unaccounted cash of Rs 5.85 lakh from accused Patil’s office, besides several incriminating documents. The CBI officers also had seized Rs 7.40 lakh cash, and gold coins weighing 400 grammes from his residence. The bureau officers had also seized jewellery worth lakhs of rupees from his bank locker. Two diaries mentioning some financial transactions in code words were also seized from the accused.
During the hearing of their bail applications, the prosecution strongly opposed releasing the accused as they may tamper with the witnesses. Defence counsels Adv M B Naidu and Adv PankajThakre (for accused Patil) and Adv Chandrashekhar Jaltare, Adv Abhisek Bhoot, Adv Milind Chaurasia, Adv Harsh Nanoti, Adv Devang Vaidya and Adv Dheeraj Parate (for accused Rajandekar) argued that the CBI had already completed the probe. The defence counsels said that their clients had cooperated with the investigation agency.
After hearing both the sides, the court granted relief to Patil and Rajandekar and directed them not to leave the state without permission, not to tamper with the witnesses and attend CBI office as and when called by the investigation officer.
