A senior IRS officer posted as Additional Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, Vinay Kumar Kanheti, has been released by a Thane court. Kanheti, a 2009-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, was arrested along with CGST Superintendent Rakesh Kumar Sinha and private person Narinder Rajput in a ₹1.5-crore bribery case.
The Special Court at Thane rejected the CBI’s request for five days of police custody and directed the immediate release of all three accused on personal recognisance (PR) bonds of ₹15,000 each, along with sureties of the same amount.
Court questions CBI arrest procedure
The court’s order focused heavily on how the arrests were carried out. After examining the arrest memos and case diary, In-charge Additional Sessions Judge MS Lone observed that the records did not clearly show that the accused had been properly informed of and had understood the grounds and reasons for their arrest.
The court also noted that the relatives of the accused were not informed in writing. It observed that the arrest memo appeared to have been prepared by officials themselves without establishing whether the accused had actually understood the reasons for their arrest.
The court further pointed to issues with the case diary submitted by the investigating officer, noting that papers were tied with a tag and were “loosely tightened”. It also observed that the place of arrest appeared to be the CBI office or the same place in Panvel.
Based on these findings, the court concluded that the arrests of all three accused were not legal.
₹40 lakh trap after ₹1.5 crore demand
The CBI had registered the case on August 26 against Sinha after receiving information that ₹1.50 crore had been demanded to settle a GST and royalty matter involving a stone-quarrying firm.
According to the CBI, negotiations later brought the amount down to ₹40 lakh. The public servants had arranged for the money to be collected through private person Narinder Rajput.
The CBI then laid a trap on Thursday and caught Rajput while he was accepting ₹40 lakh. Kanheti and Sinha were arrested soon after.
Searches at premises linked to the accused led to the recovery of ₹43 lakh in cash and jewellery worth around ₹90 lakh.
Court finds no need for further custody
Despite the seriousness of the corruption case, the court found no ‘satisfactory reasons’ for further custodial interrogation. It noted that the CBI had already seized the bribe money and recovered the mobile phones of all three accused during their personal searches.
The court therefore rejected the CBI’s request for police custody and ordered their release, while directing them to cooperate with the investigation whenever called.
The CBI, however, maintained that it had followed all legal requirements and said it would again approach the concerned court for custody for proper investigation. Sources said the agency would continue pursuing the case while maintaining that the arrest procedure had been properly followed.
