The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a Deputy Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), Jhansi, along with two Superintendents, an advocate and a private company owner for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹70 lakh in a GST evasion case.

The arrests followed a trap laid by the CBI on December 30 after it registered a case based on allegations that the accused officials demanded an illegal gratification of ₹1.5 crore from private firms in exchange for granting favours in GST evasion matters. The Deputy Commissioner belongs to the 2016 batch of the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Indirect Taxes).

During the operation, CBI officials caught two CGST Superintendents red-handed while accepting ₹70 lakh on the instructions of the Deputy Commissioner. The agency later arrested the Deputy Commissioner, the two Superintendents, an advocate, and the owner of a private company in connection with the bribery racket.

Following the arrests, the CBI conducted searches at multiple locations, which led to the recovery of approximately ₹90 lakh in cash, along with several property-related documents and a large quantity of jewellery and bullion. The total cash seized so far in the case stands at around ₹1.60 crore.

The CBI said search operations are still underway and further investigation is continuing to identify the role of other suspects involved in the case. All the arrested accused will be produced before the jurisdictional court after undergoing medical examination.