CBIT suspends Bollineni Sreenivasa Gandhi, Sudha Rani accused in bribe case

Hyderabad : Sreenivasa Gandhi Bollineni, who investigated several high profile multi-crore scams including that of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy's quid pro quo and MP Srujana Chowdhary's GST fraud, has been suspended.

"The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs issued suspension orders against Sreenivasa Gandhi Bollineni and Sudha Rani Chilaka, an officer confirmed to NewsMeter.

It is pertinent to note that, his suspension comes two months after the former GST Superintendent who is facing criminal charges of bribe and disproportionate assets, was promoted to the grade of Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise. "On 24th December 2020, Gandhi was promoted since there was no pending charge-sheet against him at the time of departmental promotion" the officer added.

Gandhi served as an assistant director with Enforcement Directorate, he was appointed as the investigating officer in the 100 crore demonitization fraud case booked against the city's Musaddilal Jewellers , PMLA cases against mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy.

The CBI had received inputs about Gandhi allegedly leaking information in a Rs 300-crore tax evasion scam. Besides this, the CBI was also probing if Gandhi was instrumental in allocating cases for investigation in the ED during his role as an assistant director. Gandhi entered the service by joining the excise department as an inspector in 1992.

He was later promoted as Superintendent of the anti-tax evasion wing – Central GST in Hyderabad. However following the CBI case he was transferred out from the wing. He also served with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence before serving in Enforcement Directorate and GST's Tax-anti-evasion wing

CBI booked two top officers in bribe case

CBI found that Sreenivasa Gandhi Bollineni and Sudha Rani Chilaka demanded bribe of Rs 5 crore from a private company against whom a probe was on. The central investigating agency booked Sudha Rani Chilaka- former deputy commissioner of tax-anti-evasion wing and Sreenivasa Gandhi Bollineni, the then Superintendent of the department.

Investigation found that Chilaka Sudha Rani and Sreenivasa Gandhi Bollineni, both formerly serving with the tax-anti-evasion wing were probing a case against a company 'Infiniti Metal product India' . The group is accused of wrongfully availing fake input tax credit (ITC) to evade GST payment. The two top officers reportedly colluded with other GST officials and demanded a bribe of Rs 5 crore towards official help.

"They ( referring to the two officials) accepted Rs 10 lakh cash and demanded for open land/plots for the balance of the bribe amount.' CBI said. The CBI in the connection with the two officials booked the director of Bharani Commodities, Satya Sridhar Reddy Jagannagari for keeping the investigating agency in dark regarding bribe demanded and paid. The third accused was arrested by the GST officials in a fraud case, he was sent on judicial remand in 2019. The accused reportedly paid Rs 10 lakh to the officials under the threat of arrest of his wife J Raghavi Reddy. "He failed to report the matter to CBI or any other law enforcement agency within a period of 7 days" CBI said

This is the second case against the officer, in 2019 Gandhi and his wife were booked in a disproportionate assets case to the tune of Rs 3 crore. The CBI was acting on a complaint filed by one Vivekanand Swamy V.