Bhubaneswar: The CBI has filed a case against three employees of income tax (I-T) department in Khurda on the charges of demanding Rs 10,000 bribe from a farmer for deactivating his duplicate PAN.Complainant Subash Chandra Sahoo (48), a resident of Airfield police station area in Bhubaneswar, lodged a complaint with the CBI on Tuesday, accusing I-T inspector T Satyanarayan Rao, clerk Bhimsen Barik and data entry operator Kumar Samaresh of demanding the bribe. The CBI officials verified the complaint in the presence of independent witnesses. “During verification, it was found that the accused had demanded undue advantage of Rs 10,000 for deleting/deactivating the duplicate PAN card of the complainant from the I-T database. This, prima facie, discloses commission of a cognizable offence punishable under Section 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018),” the FIR stated. In his complaint, Sahoo explained that his original PAN card, linked to his bank account and Aadhaar, contained a spelling error in his father’s name. “Instead of applying for correction, I mistakenly applied for a new PAN card. Later, the bank authorities asked me to deactivate the old one and link the new PAN with my account,” he said. On March 19, Sahoo visited the I-T office in Khurda and met Samaresh, who introduced him to Barik. “Both demanded Rs 2,000 to deactivate my old PAN card. When I refused, they took me to inspector Rao, who raised the demand to Rs 10,000 and threatened that my application would be rejected if I did not pay,” the complaint alleged. The CBI officials said an investigation was on.
