The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issued a grim press release stating that a high-level IRS officer has been held for alleged corruption
M Krishnaswamy, an officer of the 1988 batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS), who is of the rank of Commissioner of Income-tax and is presently posted as Director (Investigation), Settlement Commission, Delhi, is the latest to fall foul of the CBI’s crusade against corrupt officials.
The CBI has issued a grim press release which reads as follows:
“The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case u/s.109 of IPC r/w 13 (2) r/w 13 (1)(e) of PC Act 1988 against then Commissioner of Income Tax (IRS – 88 Batch), presently posted as Director (Investigation), Settlement Commission, Chennai and 8 others including his family members & certain benami property holders, on the allegations that the accused had amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs.6.1 crores (approx). The other accused had allegedly abetted him in commission of said offence. It was further alleged that the public servant had acquired huge assets in the name of his immediate family members & benami holders at Chennai and various other places in Tamil Nadu including at his native village near Palani (Tamil Nadu).
Searches have been conducted at 14 places including residential & official premises in Chennai, Palani and other places in Tamil Nadu, which led to recovery of documents relating to property worth several crores of rupees (approx); locker details; investments in shares; investments in a private firm and also investments in another company.
Further investigation is continuing.”
The Indian Express carried a picture of Krishnaswamy’s residence in Palani which appears to be palatial by any standards. It also reported that Krishnaswamy had acquired huge assets in the name of benami holders at Chennai and various other places in Tamil Nadu. The CBI raid began at 10.30 am and went on till evening, it said.
It is worth recalling that M Krishnaswamy is the latest in a long list of elite IRS officers who have been booked for corruption. In Despite “Anti-Corruption Pledge”, Income-Tax Dept Remains Den Of Corruption, it is pointed out that the CBI has carried out similar raids on Sailendra Mamidi and Anil Goel, both of whom are Chief Commissioners of Income-tax, and Santosh Jangre, the Joint Commissioner of Income-tax, Mumbai.
Unfortunately, there is no update from the CBI on what is the progress in these cases or the several that have preceded them.
Fact remains that Krishnaswamy continues to be on job, he was promoted as pr.Commissioner of income-tax and is now posted in West Bengal…transfer cannot be a punishment….one who has learnt the art of making money through illegal means will make it wherever he is posted…..
Dear Varaprasadgaroo, Namaskaram. I am sorry about your plight. I agree with you that many times unfit people occupy important posts for public service and do papakarma. Here only we are needed to fight and correct them. This is what I want. I am sorry to note about Sri Waghela also, who should be from Gujarath, the place of Gandhi Do not lose heart. Be firm with you. The best friend for you is you yourself, who should stand united firmly with you. Rest will follow. Be honest. There will be no fear. This is my humble request to you and Sri Waghela. If you lose heart, you worst enemy is yourself who had already defeated you. Hum Honge Kaamyab, though not now itself, but Ek dhin. My id is m_narain@yahoo.co.in
Dear M.Narayanan,
I joined as LDC and have since retired in July 2002 as Addl.CIT. I have no regrets for my transfers . I never asked for a particular posting nor I ever tried for cancellation of my transfers. GOD was with me and I had the privilege to work under so many good Officers (barring few , at least 3 of them retired as Chairman and about 6 retired as Member of CBDT). They all appreciated my honesty and helped me to climb up the ladder.
Thanking you for your response.
Dear Sri Waghela,Your issue is certainly correct, but different You should have approached your association and CAT if necessary, as this is an administrative matter. Further you should have approached CBI for a trap, when your Bosses demanded money. I do not wish to hurt you. I am an Association man and had been the Secretary, President etc., of Tamilnadu IT Gazetted Assn., and had fought against unjust Transfer Orders even if it had no corrupt motive and successfully too,. But ultimately, both of us agree that there are many reasons for corruption. My only point is that the affected person should fight it out and others should not be onlookers, even if they are not affected. As a matter of fact in the instant case I was not demanded to pay even a rupee and the official is a good friend of mine too. But I did make a complaint as I am a watchdog as an Association man who always fought against injustice. The core point is not who is the root cause for corruption, but the lesson is everyone should fight against it and should not just watch it as a passerby.
Shri Narayananji. I am glad to that you served in high places of the Association and you fought for many unjust causes. But in the then APGOA certain vested interested people occupied the prime places of Association. They had mediated for transfers on behalf of some officers and many were the victims of such transfers. In my own case the then Secretary had vehemently tried to transfer me out of the place. Even the then CCIT over telephone threatened that I might be transferred to farthest place like Srikakulam. I did not care his threats and stated that it would be a boon for me since Srikakulam is closest to my native place and I could daily commute from my native place to the office. Then he did not consider his threat. It appears it was the greediness of some of the officers is the main cause.
Can we expect a statement from the Spokesman (woman) about what action is taken on the officials who are now caught by the CBI. Are they busy covering up the track for them we would like to know if they are suspended/ relieved of their duties /or under judicial custody .We are aware that the indian constitution is judicious but if investigation is not carried out , as all other cases the corrupt will be free .at least a summary of the action taken can be informed to the public.
I agree with b.s.waghela . While an officer is fixed his higher officer of two levels at least be fixed also – as they get share and sleep
Sir, Kindly understand that corruption is at different levels. If the consumer (in IT Department it is assessee) is stubborn and honest, he will not listen to a corrupt representative and no ITO or AC or DC will be corrupt. So the source is the person who wants a favour. The question, whether million dollar or ek rupaiya. is whether the consumer is willing to resist a temptation for getting a favour. All of us are shouting about the corrupt. Why should we not look at the corruptor? In the instant case, how many tax payers have benefitted out of the favours of the accused and how are we going to identify them and recover the undue benefit they have got? To start with, do not just watch a corrupt act if it takes place. We do not need just watchmen but watchdogs, if I am not mistaken. Onlookers also are to blame. In the recent floods at Chennai, some unscrupulous people sold milk even at Rs 100 per half litre. But please remember those many who gave free milk even then. Fortunately, it is a new year day. Take a resolution in the right direction and proceed from commenting to action. Do not wait Vishnu to take Kalki Avatar. What he would do, do yourself as Vishnu is in you. Shivoham. M.Narayanan
It must be understood that all are not paying money for favours; some do. Most of the assessees pay for avoiding unnecessary harassments , some for not making high pitched assessments etc……… One CIT demanded money and when I refused he transferred me, even though I had not completed 3 years in that chair. One CCIT transferred me thrice in a year because I did not pay him. There are many reasons for corruption.
There is an old song aankhon hi aankhon mein ishara hogaya The bosses strike a deal without words.Unless the boss indicates ,the lower authorities do not make any move. They are no fools . They know the ground realities . If the thorn falls on the leaf or the leaf falls on the thorn it is the leaf that gets injured .I do not agree with mr prakash on the point he has raised
Sir it is happy to note that an commissioner has been cought but the source of corruption is the assessing officer mostly AC DC and ITO’s is CBI catching them also??it is a million dollar question no CA Advocate or Any representative will speak as in most of the case they are the channel for these act’s
In fact these tax men corruption is facilitated by bribes just because the bribe money becomes investments in builders buildings under facade of investors with returns as high as 60 %.When so greed is bound to build up. Most of the builders are either politicians or their henchmen.
The building trade only promoted higher and higher corruption in most public offices.
Bigger level officers no more and more gets involved.
Attraction of bribe moneys is the return they make by way of interest rates which no bank would pay.
if the government really wants to weed out corruption naturally it should fetter the so called ‘investors’ in the buildings trade, when banks lend to ultimate buyers of flats why not the builders take bank loans and buyers when they get loans the builder gets complete payment when so why so called ‘investors’, a facade really created by very politicians in power only.
if your bribe money cannot earn a substantial return by way interest rates, who would like to carry the burden of bribe moneys, where he would keep , for that money would become ‘albatross’ on his head, then bribery tapper down, besides prices of real estate would not shoot up like the way it is shooting up, for all increases are thanks to heavy interest rates paid by the builders and recovered from the buyers who pay through their nose.
Real culprit is the politicians in power always. they only affect the economy but make big talks as of ‘good lot’ themselves;
Fact remain politician-builders-public servants nexus only affect the economy, by so called bogus accounts generated thanks to auditors and the like.
Invariably the auditors mostly become brokers to tax officers, i had seen several times how these auditors carry the cash to these ‘officers’ from the tax paying community especially builders/business communities and others.
So the main culprits are politicians. So better make CBI as a separate instrumentality like CAG then governments are at arms length from these fellows. Then the so called government and political involvement automatically get snapped, then CBI could function more effectively, and they can round up every day at least 10 to 20 persons involved in bribes.
Do you think it would happen? I have my own doubts.
I want to point out that these superior officials did not even come round and see how their lower level formations do function. This dereliction encourages corrupt officials to do daylight robbery keeping touts in their cabins in a brazen way, whether they share or not. Let us remember Kejriwal an IRS Officer fought against corruption and became a chief minister whereas he would not have even become a chief commissioner if he continued as IRS. Not all are corrupt in IT Department but even non corrupt are inefficient in curbing corruption which also is a misconduct.
M.Narayanan
The Indian Express appears had stated that there is a long list of IRS officers with it who are under surveillance and it is to be seen how long it will take to reveal the real facts of all of them. In between the list may increase with further additions. Hence it is needed for a speedy action by the investigation agency.
It is a fact that this Officer as Appeal Commissioner was keeping 3 touts as brokers in his cabin while hearing appeals. Those touts were fixing the cases in the second floor of Aayakar Bhavan Chennai. A handful of Chief Commissioners were sitting in the first floor of the same building unaware of what was happening.They had little time to get out of their rooms and their eyes and ears had no urge to hear or see what was going around. The creation of Chief Commissioners had little impact on vigilance as proved in this case. I having noticed this, went to the first principal chief commissioner Chennai, told him that I did not like to spend some Rs ten thousand to acquire a spy camera to show him what was happening with Sri Krishnaswami and asked him to make surprise visit, catch hold of the brokers and drive them away. Thar principal; CC is understood to have installed CCTV cameras but Sri Krishnaswami continued without a change. I told the Principal CC that if a commissioner be so openly corrupt, howq do you expect the lower level Officials to be honest. I even sent a mail on the departmental website later as I was not satisfied as I could see no effect of my complaint. I even rang up the Board Member whom I personally knew and know now also who later retired as Chairman and presently a bigger official, who said he would do something. All this happened more than eighteen months ago. My grievance is that the top officials do not know that it is a misconduct on their own part to allow a lower official to be corrupt. When a corrupt official has touts and benamies, no economics is needed to say that his corrupt demand will be higher, which also I brought out when I made a complaint. Lazy action has only resulted in amassing more. Probably that is the only benefit in bringing out a bigger disproportion in assets while chargesheeting. I do not wish to hide my name. I am M.Narayanan, a retired Taxman from Chennai
Mr. M Narayanan, congrats for your guts in bringing out the facts to the notice of higher authorities. Similar authority in Hyderabad who fixes targets of survey cases and settlement by him. His attitude made some officers the victims of CBI trap cases and the boss kept free. The main point of continuance of corruption is allowance of such top officers in positions. They knew it but turn a nelson’s eye to such happenings.
Similarly in my own case, when I disobeyed the range head for not providing moneys as she wished I was issued a charge sheet on flimsy grounds. The CBDT had been dilly dallying in logical conclusions till date. To my best of luck the agony of the range head was witnessed by a CBI inspector who happened to visit our office on other official purpose was astonished. After his two days stay in the office he hinted that the range head would fact a true lesson. That Inspector was selected by the then CVC for his dedicated service. The range head in spite of the knowledge of the official presence of the CBI inspector she did not mince her words in expressing her anguish. Later in the year 2002 she was trapped by CBI and even on date she is roaming around CBI courts.
Congrats narayanan
Top Officers know corrupt practices of their subordinate officers, but some of them keep silence because they also get share in the booty.
an auto correct
instead of date read data
will the CBI be prompt ……….lest we take that their hands are also greased
There should be a law that the assets created through illegal and corrupt practice should have been attached and recovery be made to sold out because they have acquired these assets through corrupt practice and cheating with state funds
PMLA is the relevant law, please go through this Act Mr Nem Singh and you will find that all such properties are attachable by ED
An error…an alert colleague gave a clue
The spokesman of an orgsnisation is the face of that organisation.yes we would like to be kept informed of what has happened in the other cases .Fortnately in Bitu mohanthys case an alert colleague have our a clue.Even today we are not updated on the date of Bitu mohanthy or the other officials of the IT department who were covered by their operations.Will the CON he prompt in updating the status of the case.Ie should we take it that their hands are well greased!!