New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) The CBI arrested a deputy commissioner of the income-tax department and a chartered accountant on Friday for allegedly sabotaging the faceless scheme for I-T assessment, officials said.

Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax Vijayendra, a 2015-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer posted at the department’s Jhandewalan office in Delhi, was arrested here, while chartered accountant Dinesh Kumar Agarwal was arrested in Gujarat’s Bharuch, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe in the matter has shown that the duo contacted various assesses of pending high-value I-T assessment cases, promising favourable orders in their cases under scrutiny in return for bribes.

The finance ministry introduced the faceless scheme to increase transparency, reduce human interface and prevent corruption.

The scheme is called “Faceless” simply because the assessee will not get to see the face of his or her assessing officer and know who will be conducting the assessments. This will reduce the interface, discretion and corruption.

“However, these accused persons have been clandestinely collecting and disseminating confidential insider information pertaining to this scheme like the name of the assessment officer, the issues under scrutiny etc. pertaining to pending big-ticket assessment/appeal cases, to the assesses and thereafter, collecting bribe amounts. The arrested accused are being produced before the jurisdictional court,” a spokesperson of the federal agency said in a statement.

On February 6, the CBI conducted searches at 18 places, including in Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, West Champaran (Bihar), Bengaluru and Kottayam (Kerala), in connection with the case.

The agency had initiated a preliminary enquiry (PE) on a complaint from the I-T department, which was later converted into an FIR after prima facie material showed the officials’ complicity.

It was alleged in the complaint that the I-T department had conducted a search on Agarwal last year and during an analysis of his phone, it emerged that there was a network of chartered accountants that was revealing the identities of assessing officers working in the faceless assessment system by taking undue benefits.

Agarwal, either himself or through other CAs and private persons working as nodal officers in different states, approached the assessees and offered to settle the pending cases in their favour in exchange for a certain pecuniary benefit, the complaint and PE findings, which are now part of the FIR, alleged.

He claimed to be a political leader and that he had campaigned for BJP leaders, besides making claims of working as a liaison agent for various government departments, the complaint documents said.

From the analysis of his phone, the tax department also found chats with a number, which Agarwal claimed to be of Vijayendra R.

The chats show that information regarding assessment officers (AOs) and issues, along with the quantum in various pending cases in faceless proceedings, was shared by Vijayendra with Agarwal, the tax department has alleged.

“This information was then shared by Dinesh Kumar Agarwal with various CAs to coordinate with interested assesses for favourable settlement with faceless AOs/CsIT(A),” it has said.

The CBI’s PE found that Vijayendra and inspectors allegedly shared sensitive information with Agarwal, following which they were booked in the case. PTI ABS RC