A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday sentenced a serving Income Tax (I-T) commissioner to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a 14-year-old case pertaining to disproportionate assets.

The court of CBI special judge Sujata Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 3.50 crore on senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Swetabh Suman, who has been convicted under sections 11, 13 (2) and 13 (1)(e) of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Moreover, the court also sentenced Suman’s 90-year-old mother, Gulab Devi, to a one-year jail term, while his brother-in-law Arun Kumar Singh and his close associate Rajendra Vikram Singh have been awarded a four-year jail term. All three were convicted under section 109 (punishment for abetment) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court also came down heavily on 58 witnesses who turned hostile during the trial. “In case of public servants, the court has ordered CBI to write to their respective departments to initiate action against them, while cases would be registered against other witnesses who turned hostile,” said a lawyer involved in the matter.

CBI had registered an FIR against Suman on August 2, 2005 under sections 11 and 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act and section 109 of IPC for possession of disproportionate assets in his own name, in the names of his mother and family members and others during the period from April 1, 1997 to March 31, 2004.

In the chargesheet filed on July 23, 2010, CBI alleged that Suman, during his postings at various places, was “leading a luxurious life and had amassed assets worth Rs 3.31 crore, which were 337% more than his known source of income.”

Speaking to TOI, prosecution lawyer Satish Kumar said, “CBI conducted searches at 14 places across India, including Dehradun, Noida and Jamshedpur. It was found that the IRS officer had bought several properties in the name of other people.”

CBI sources said that Suman had purchased a house on Rajpur Road in Dehradun in his mother’s name, a plot in USHA colony in Dehradun, a plot of land in sector 50 in Noida, a plot inside IRS society in Lucknow and a hotel in Bihar. He had also purchased few acres of agriculture land in Pondha village in Dehradun in the name of different people.

“He bought the 55 bigha land in Pondha in his associate Abhay Kumar Singh’s name and three shops in a commercial complex. Another flat in sector 62 in Noida was also bought by him and a 35-room hotel in Bodhgaya was also found to be in Arun Kumar Singh’s name,” said Satish Kumar.

The special CBI court also ordered to confiscate all the properties with a combined worth of over Rs 3.5 crore, according to the prosecution lawyer. During trial, the prosecution examined 255 witnesses while defence lawyers examined eight witnesses in the case.

Incidentally, in a separate case, Swetabh Suman had been arrested by CBI sleuths while taking a bribe of Rs 40 lakh in Assam in April 2018. Suman was then posted at Guwahati as commissioner of income tax (audit). He was in jail for over 60 days after which he was granted bail.

“There are three more cases pending against him in Dehradun, including one related to removing files with complaints against him from the office of income tax commissioner while he was posted in the city in 2004-05. An FIR was registered against him in Dalanwala police station,” said the CBI lawyer.

In addition, he said that a case is also pending with CBI magistrate court against Suman, related to purchase of a car on a forged ration card.

Source:https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/i-t-commissioner-swetabh-suman-sentenced-to-7-years-rigorous-imprisonment/articleshow/67982087.cms