CBI Exposes ₹1.5 Crore Bribe Deal Led by IRS Officer: A Phone Call Cracks the Case

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In a shocking revelation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has exposed a massive corruption racket allegedly led by a senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Prabha Bhandari, a deputy commissioner at the Central GST department in Jhansi. The case against Bhandari and her accomplices began to unravel with a single phone call that was recorded by the CBI. According to sources, the CBI caught two GST superintendents, Anil Tiwari and Ajay Kumar Sharma, red-handed while accepting a bribe of ₹70 lakh. Under questioning, they implicated Bhandari as the mastermind behind the deal. However, the CBI wanted more concrete evidence, so they devised a plan to get Bhandari to incriminate herself on tape. Bhandari was in Delhi at the time, but the CBI team arrested her there, while another team conducted a search of her locked flat in Jhansi, where they found cash, gold, jewelry, and property documents. The CBI says that this evidence, combined with the incriminating phone call, has left no doubt about Bhandari's involvement in the corruption racket. The case began in December, when a GST team led by Bhandari raided a hardware store in Jhansi, alleging tax irregularities. The firm's proprietor, Raju Mangtani, was offered a deal to pay ₹1.5 crore to settle the case, which was negotiated by advocate Naresh Kumar Gupta. The CBI has arrested all three individuals, along with two more GST superintendents, and has recovered a total of ₹1.6 crore in cash, along with gold and property papers. The CBI has registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and is continuing its investigation to uncover any wider links and the roles of other officials involved in the corruption racket.