CT, GST Asst Commissioner arrested for siphoning off over Rs 5.85 lakh govt funds

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance officials on Sunday arrested assistant commissioner of CT & GST, Enforcement unit at Jajpur Road, Binay Bhusan Tripathy along with two of his associates on the charges of bribery, evasion of taxes, and causing loss to the tune of Rs over Rs 5.85 lakh govt funds.

The other arrested are Jyoti Pattnaik, who falsely claimed ownership of the goods, and Md Golam Sad, a scrap dealer, who received the goods.

Yesterday, a raid was conducted on the five properties linked to Tripathy following an allegation that he misappropriated an estimated amount of Rs 5,85,356 from the government fund.

On May 7, Tripathy intercepted a goods vehicle, carrying MS scrap weighing about 22,240 kg of worth Rs.8,89,600, at Revena in Jajpur and demanded Rs 2.5 lakh as bribe from the owner to release the vehicle. When the bribe demand was not met, he sold the entire scrap to another scrap dealer in violation of GST laws. He then collected the tax but misappropriated the balance amount of Rs 5,85,356, a Vigilance release said.

Further investigation revealed that he had been parking the bribes collected in various bank accounts of his family members, and later converting them into fixed deposits and one such account has been opened in the name of his father.

Further investigation is underway.