The Government on Monday compulsorily retired 12 senior officials of Income Tax Department, including Commissioner, Joint Commissioner, Additional Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner, over serious allegations of corruption.
According to Finance Ministry sources, list of officials include Ram Kumar Bhargawa (Assistant Commissioner, Lucknow), Alok Kumar Mitra (Commissioner, Kochi), Sanjay Kumar Srivastava (Commissioner, Noida), Arulappa B (Commissioner, Kochi), Ajoy Kumar Singh (Commissioner, Kolkata), B B Rajendra Prasad (Commissioner, Gujarat), Homi Rajvansh (Commissioner, Tamil Nadu), Swetabh Suman (Commissioner-under suspension, Guwahati), Andasu Ravindar (Additional Commissioner, Bhuwaneshwar), Vivek Batra (Additional Commissioner, Tamil Nadu), Ashok Kumar Aggarwal (Joint Commissioner, New Delhi) and Chander Sain Bharti (Additional Commissioner, Allahabad).
Order issued
Orders issued by the Finance Ministry has quoted clause J of rule 56 of the Fundamental Rules and based on that the President retires these officials with immediate effect from the afternoon of June 11.
The particular rule covers Group ‘A & B’ officers who entered service before 35 years of age and have attained 50 years of age.
A review takes place on quarterly basis which include officials and employees facing corruption kinds of serious allegation.
If the review committee finds allegations true, then it recommends compulsory retirement and then the order is signed by the President.
The compulsory retired officials will be paid a sum equivalent to the amount of pay and allowances for a period of thee months calculated at the same rate at which he/she was supposed to be drawing them immediately before his retirement.
Such an action is considered as penalty and the Government believes that it will act as deterrent for others. At present retirement age is 60 years. Loss of 10 years of service means loss in terms of the benefits and perks for that period and loss of honour for whole life.
Allegations
According to sources, allegations against officials, retired compulsorily, are very serious. For instance, there are serious complaints of corruption and major extortion from businessmen accused of helping the alleged Godman Chandraswami against Ashok Aggarwal.
S K Srivastava is accused of sexual harassment of two lady IRS officers of Commissioner rank. Homi Rajvansh is alleged to have acquired assets worth over ₹3 crore through corrupt and illegal practices. Allegation against B B Rajendra Prasad talks about obtaining illegal gratification in lieu of passing favorable appeal order in one case. There is case of disproportioned asserts against Ajoy Kumar Singh.
B. Arulappa allegedly proved to be ineffective as a Supervisory Officer as he failed to ensure assignment of important cases having large tax implication to senior and experienced officers. Alok Kumar Mitra is alleged to have passed many wrong and malafide assessment orders which were later on reversed by the appellate authorities.
Chander Sain Bharti was apprehended by CBI in connection with a trap case and the bribe money of ₹30 lakh was recovered from angadiya (courier) used by him.
Andasu Ravindar is alleged to have abused his official position and obtained pecuniary advantage in the matter pertaining to the survey conducted in one case.
Vivek Batra has been accused by CBI in 2005 of abuse of his official position to accumulate assets disproportionate to his known sources of income amounting ₹1.27 Crore.
Swetabh Suman was arrested by CBI in New Delhi on April 13, 2018 for allegedly demanding ₹50 lakh for giving relief in a shell company matter to a businessman. There is allegation against Ram Kumar Bhargawa acted beyond his jurisdiction.