Begusarai: A team of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB) arrested an assistant commissioner and a data entry operator of the state commercial taxes department on Tuesday on charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000.The team raided the local office of the commercial taxes department following a complaint filed by Jyoti Kumar, a garment shopowner. The team caught data entry operator Santosh Kumar Jha red-handed while allegedly accepting the bribe. However, on realising that vigilance sleuths were present in the office, he allegedly threw the Rs 500-denomination notes out of an office window. The alert team members spotted him doing so and recovered the bundle of notes, officials said.DSP, VIB, Satish Chandra Madhav, who headed the operation, said the numbers on the recovered notes matched those given to the team before the operation. “Case has been filed against the arrested accused,” he said.Giving further information, he said Prakash Chandra Mohan, assistant commissioner, Begusarai circle, and Santosh were allegedly demanding Rs 50,000 from Jyoti as a bribe to settle a GST dues demand of Rs 3.84 lakh.“Jyoti claimed that he had been paying the due GST on time and the arrear demand was to demand the bribe money. He claimed in his complaint that when he approached the assistant commissioner he directed him to consult Santosh,” he said.However, Santosh later allegedly agreed to settle the deal for Rs 25,000.
