The CBI has seized around Rs 1 crore in cash and 3.5 kg of gold during searches at the premises of senior IRS officer Amit Kumar Singal, who has been arrested, along with one of his associates, in connection with a bribery case involving an amount of Rs 25 lakh, officials said on Monday.
The CBI conducted searches at the premises of Singal, a 2007-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer who was posted as the Additional Director General at the Directorate of Taxpayer Services here, and his associate Harsh Kotak, following a trap operation.
During the searches at Singal’s promises in Delhi and Punjab, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seized Rs 1 crore in cash, along with 3.5 kg of gold and two kg of silver, the officials said.
Singal was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from a pizza-chain owner, they added.
He had allegedly demanded a total bribe amount of Rs 45 lakh to settle an income-tax notice issued to Sanam Kapoor, owner of La Pino’z Pizza, according to the CBI FIR.
The first instalment of Rs 25 lakh was delivered to his residence in Punjab’s Mohali on Saturday, where Kotak allegedly received the money on the officer’s behalf. Acting on Kapoor’s complaint, a CBI team raided the premises and arrested Kotak. Another team of the federal agency arrested Singal from his Delhi residence on the same day. The two were produced before a special magistrate in Chandigarh, who remanded them in judicial custody till June 13, according to Kapoor’s lawyer, Gagandeep Jammu.
According to the FIR, Singal, then posted as the joint commissioner, Customs Department, Mumbai, approached Kapoor and after a few meetings, entered into a master franchise contract with La Pinoz Pizza through Parker Impex, a partnership firm in the name of his mother, Ranjna and Amit Rattan. It was allegedly followed by other agreements regarding a franchise deal for two outlets and a store with Flevaco (a partnership firm of Harsh Kotak and his mother, Godavariben Amulakhbhai Kotak) and an agreement for an outlet with Mohini Hospitality, in which Kotak’s wife, Kiran, was the proprietor.
Later, Kotak replaced Rattan in Parker Impex, the FIR has alleged.
Following a business fallout due to “unprofessional conduct and material violations”, Kapoor was allegedly coerced to buy back three outlets at six times their value, Jammu said.
“After termination of master franchise contracts with Parker Impex and its associate firms in the month of December 2024, Singal, using his influence, got income tax notice, Issued to me by Income Tax department on February 18, 2025,” Kapoor has alleged in the complaint to the CBI that is now part of the FIR.
