Court grants conditional bail to arrested income tax official

Sessions Judge M C Khadke ordered Joint Commissioner of Income Tax Sanjeev Ghai to be released on conditional bail here today, after he was arrested earlier for alleged charges of corruption.
In his order passed today, the judge ordered Ghai who is presently in judicial custody to present himself before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the 30th of every month.
He also ordered the arrested IT Joint Commissioner to furnish a bond of Rs 30,000 and with one or two sureties of a similar amount.
In his conditional bail order, the judge directed Ghai that he should not tamper with evidence and co-operate in investigation of the case.

Arguing Ghai's bail application earlier, his counsel Jaideep Thakker said the CBI wanted to take voice samples of the arrested, but since the last 15 days there has been no efforts by the CBI to do so.
The other point on which the counsel Thakker sought bail was that the CBI wanted to probe him in connection with the 35 income tax files which he had handled, but the agency did not visit jail for the enquiry even once, as is evident from jail records.
He also said that the CBI had already seized all files relevant to the case and there was no more seizure left to be carried out, and on these grounds alone, the applicant could be released on bail.

During the last week of December 2013, the CBI had arrested Ghai who was posted at Thane for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 3.5 lakh from a businessman to bail him out in a tax evasion case.