Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: An income tax officer, Shashikant Vitthal Kothawade, was convicted and sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by a special CBI court in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Monday. Kothawade was found guilty of demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from a city-based businessman in 2018.
Special CBI Judge SK Kulkarni also imposed a total fine of Rs 4 lakh on Kothawade under multiple sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Public prosecutor Arvind Kumar (CBI and ACB) informed TOI that Kothawade was present in court during the conviction and was immediately taken into custody and sent to Harsul Central Prison.
The court convicted Kothawade under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, sentencing him to four years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2 lakh. Additionally, he was found guilty under Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2), which carries a five-year sentence and another fine of Rs 2 lakh. Both sentences will run concurrently. In the event that Kothawade fails to pay the fines, he will serve an additional six months of imprisonment for each offence.
The court also ordered that the Rs 2 lakh bribe amount, recovered during the trap operation, be returned to the complainant once the appeal period has expired.
Electronic evidence, including DVDs and memory cards, will be kept as part of the case record, while other physical items used during the operation, such as handwash bottles, cotton cloth, and plastic bags, will be destroyed after the appeal period.
Furthermore, the court granted Kothawade a set-off under Section 428 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the time he had already spent in jail, from March 22 to March 26, 2018.
The case dates back to 2018 when a property dealer and garment trader accused Kothawade of demanding Rs 2 lakh to “settle” his outstanding tax liability for the assessment year 2010-11. The I-T department had raised an online demand of Rs 46.55 lakh against the property dealer and issued two notices on February 16, 2018, seeking clarification on deposits made by the dealer and his wife.
After verifying the complaint, the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch in Pune registered an FIR on March 22, 2018, and laid a trap the same day, apprehending Kothawade red-handed while accepting the bribe.
In its verdict, the court directed Kothawade to surrender his bail bonds and ordered that his sureties be discharged.
