CBI registers cases against Income-Tax officials

The ACB team has booked Murali Mohan, Additional Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, his wife Kala and T N Prakash, additional commissioner of Income Tax, Bengaluru, who was Additional Commissioner, Income Tax at Chennai and Vellore between 2011 and 2016. 

ACB has noted that both the officials had a lower middle class background and had no other source of income besides salary. During raids, the CBI had seized Rs 17 lakh in cash, 4.13 kg of gold and 12.295 kg of silver from the residence of Prakash besides documents of 18 prime plots in Hyderabad. 

The CBI officials also found that Prakash had gone on foreign tours along with his family, first to the USA and then a 36-day tour with family to 12 European countries. He also got admission for his son at a university in Dubai by spending Rs 26 lakh. He owned four four-wheelers and two two-wheelers apart from expensive gadgets. 

T N Prakash is a 1991 batch IRS officer. CBI sources told DTNext that Prakash had acquired most of the properties and assets during his service period at Chennai and Vellore between 2011 and 2016. Similarly, Murali Mohan also acquired huge assets in his native Andhra Pradesh, both in the name of his wife and mother Saroja. Police said Murali Mohan, a 1999 batch IRS officer, had acquired a marriage hall, a 15,000 sq feet commercial building besides other immovable properties in AP. 

The officer, when interrogated by the CBI, could not reveal any legal source of income that enabled him to purchase these properties. The ACB has also pulled out the I-T returns of Murali Mohan’s wife where she had listed the revenue from these properties as business income.  CBI sources said that these officials had received illegal gratification for help they rendered to the businessmen for tax evasion. Investigations are on.