New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation Saturday raided Noida office and residence of sacked Income Tax Commissioner (Appeals), S.K. Srivastava, after a case of cheating, forgery, and doling out undue favours was registered against him.
Srivastava, who was one of the 12 I-T officers who were forcibly retired by the government for their professional misconduct, has also been accused of sexual harassment of two women IRS officers of Commissioner rank.
According to a CBI source, when Srivastava got to know that he is being removed, he passed several backdated orders. Sample this: He decided 104 appeals and dispatched its orders on 14 June — three days after he was asked to vacate the post. He, however, allegedly manipulated the dates in the order and put 7 June instead of 14 June to show that he passed the orders while he was still holding the post of the Commissioner. According to the source, he allegedly received benefits to manipulate these records.
The source also said that these orders, which were in reality passed after 11 June, were also uploaded with a backdate on the ITBA system.
“The officers have one RSA token that they use to upload these orders in the system, which was misused by Srivastava. The dispatch records show that he manipulated the orders dispatched on June 7, 2019 while it was actually dispatched on June 14, 2019, after he had left the post,” a CBI source said.
Jewellery worth Rs 2.7 crore recovered
According to the source, 13 locations associated with Srivastava — including the official residence in Pandara Road, premises of his associate Amar Das, residence of two charted accountants, Anil Prahalad Kumar and K.P. Garg, and the boutique of his wife at Vasant Vihar — were raided by the CBI and recoveries worth crores were made.
According to the source, jewellery worth Rs 2.47 crore, Rs 16.44 lakh cash, watches worth Rs 10 lakh were recovered from Srivastava’s residence. An amount of Rs 1.3 crore was also found in his bank account and that of his family members.
The CBI has also recovered documents to show that he owns properties worth crores of rupees in Delhi and Noida.
Sexual harassment charge & petition against NDTV
Just two weeks before he was forced to take voluntary retirement, Srivastava’s name appeared in a chargesheet, with seven allegations against him. A formal inquiry against him was also initiated on 23 May this year.
Srivastava, who was forced to retire five years before his service was to end, was also arrested in the past in a case of sexual harassment.
In the past, Srivastava has filed many petitions, including the one against news channel NDTVand others before the Special Judge hearing the 2G spectrum case.
In 2011, the judge had, however, ruled that the Income Tax officer “is not connected with the case in any manner” and that Srivastava had made “unsubstantiated, unwarranted and malicious” allegations against NDTV and others and was also penalised for doing so.
He allegedly made scandalous allegations against women Income Tax officers, making a “false facade of inquiries” against top officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and making “unsubstantiated and malicious” allegations in the ongoing proceedings in theNDTV and 2G spectrum cases.
According to the CBDT, Srivastava had misbehaved by making objectionable references to women officers belonging to the Indian Revenue Services (IRS).
The CBDT has cited a 2016 CAT order against Srivastava in which the Tribunal had stated that “S K Srivastava is in the habit of filing fanciful and celebrated litigation, levelling allegations against the Minister concerned, and other higher officials in order to settle personal scores.”
this comment is very true: Is it because he exposed the nexus between NDTV and Chidambaram money laundering ?
Isn’t the lady Mrs. Sumana Sen who was assessing officer of NDTV accusing Mr Srivastava of Sexual harassment? Wasn’t her husband working for NDTV drawing unusually high salary?
Wasn’t it Arun Jaitly ( friend of Chidambaram) tried subdue Srivasatava ‘s investigation into NDTV Pranoy Roy’s money laundering activity.
Addition : that other lady was asma neb muslim who has falsely abducted sincere officers in her fake sexual cases n aide to fire them. poor SK shriwastava he needs to get his job back . all money / jewellery form his home seems reasonable. Sen’s husband got double in monthly salary than 2 crore per month. Scourt needs to free him up asap
Is it because he exposed the nexus between NDTV and Chidambaram money laundering ?
Isn’t the lady Mrs. Sumana Sen who was assessing officer of NDTV accusing Mr Srivastava of Sexual harassment? Wasn’t her husband working for NDTV drawing unusually high salary?
Wasn’t it Arun Jaitly ( friend of Chidambaram) tried subdue Srivasatava ‘s investigation into NDTV Pranoy Roy’s money laundering activity.
I cannot comment on the cheating, etc., in the allegations against this highly acclaimed and monetarily successful officer of the IRS–fot it all depends on the contemporaneous evidence in the hands of the investigation agency and its capability in assessing its relevante. But, as regards passing of backdated orders by the officers in the income tax department, I can solwmnly affirm from my personal experience, that this has been a most well-known and widely established practice and culture pf the department for ages, and also
a universally acclaimed way to material success through unjust enrichment and a sure way to be recognised by the superiors for purposes of promotion, choice postings/stations at will and post-retirement govt. largesse
There are hundreds of cases on record of officers resorting to the practice of passing “backdated orders”, as per the evidence gathered by the erstwhilevInspection Division of the CBDT especially during 1985-86 in the course of the failed special drive to identify and weed out the corrupt officers–by way of being a precedent of the current cleansing move undertaken by the govt. (which also is destined to fail at the learned hands of the CAT in particular). In the previous study of 1985-86, one class-II officer of Kolkata, a very powerful element (who not only decided the transfer and postings of all officers of the income tax department in Bengal but also–owing to his proximity to the then CM–all the IAS/IPS officers of the state cadre) “created” hundreds of bogus/backdated records/orders in several cases even of non-existing persons (used for hawala operations). One of the beneficiaries of this daring fraud was the officer of a very powerful IAS officer with enormous clout who, after a change in the regime, even became a member of the govt. All the documentaryv evidence painstakingly gathered in this “exemplary” case of a class-II ITO must still be available.
To the credit of the CAT, the officer finally won his case and was reinstated with full honours (1990), and the CBDT/govt of the day was “persuaded” to accept the decision of the CAT. The hugely successful and officer, who was successfully “practising” all along, and 2ho had a Diplomatic passport issued to him at the instance of the said CM, peacefully settled abroad.
This is just a representative case of the culture of passing of backdated orders, not only driven by personal greed but also at the instance of the superiors.
I am inclined to the view that the ongoing exercise to enforce FR 56(j) must also fail. Sad, but that has been the destiny.
Ultimately, the corrupt must always stand victorious in the given system, as will be clear from the profile of almost all servibg officers-turned-politicians.