Tax inspector jailed for seeking Rs 4,500 bribe

A tax inspector of Delhi government has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by a court here for accepting Rs 4,500 from a cable service provider who had entertainment tax dues.
Special CBI Judge Manoj Jain sentenced Krishan Sharawat to two years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000.
Sharawat, the then inspector of Entertainment Tax Department, was apprehended in a trap laid by CBI on a complaint of one Harjeet Singh in 2007.
According to prosecution, Singh was in the business of providing television cable service by the name of Balaji Cable TV Network. Sharawat was posted as Inspector then and in the last week of November 2007, he along with his team had gone to Singh's office and seized some documents.

Since the owners were not there, he left his mobile number with their employees. When he was contacted on phone, Sharawat asked Singh to meet him next day in his office.
Singh met Sharawat who told him that entertainment tax of his concern was pending for several months and asked him to deposit the same. Consequently, Singh deposited tax for two months only and could not deposit the entire tax amount for want of funds.

Thereafter, he recieved a notice to appear in the office of the department. He then called Sharawat and questioned him about the show cause notice and was asked to meet at a given place.

Accordingly, Singh met him on December 11, 2007 and was asked for a bribe of Rs 4,500 by Sharawat who claimed that he would get his tax adjusted and would also get the time limit for depositing the tax extended.
He also promised not to check their cable connections.
Sharawat also threatened Singh that if his demands are not met with, he would show extra cable connections in his name and raise extra tax demand on them.
Following this, Singh made a complaint to CBI and a trap was laid.