Thane, Jan 1 (PTI): A senior Income Tax officer, arrested last week by CBI for taking bribe, was today sent in judicial custody till January 13 by a court here.

Sanjeev Ghai, Joint I-T Commissioner posted here, was arrested on Thursday last for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 3.5 lakh from a businessman to bail him out in a tax evasion case.

He was later remanded in CBI custody till today. On expiry of his custody, Ghai was produced before Special Judge M C Khadke who sent him in judicial remand till January 13.
CBI officials told the court about the progress made in the investigation in the case.

Vijay Sali, counsel for the central agency, told the court the investigating team had recovered documents from the officer's residence.

According to CBI officials, Ghai was handling more than two dozen I-T files and was in the habit of calling the assesses for meetings. He would frequently fly to Delhi during weekends and return at the start of the week.

CBI wanted to probe Ghai's transactions to find out if he had accepted bribe money from other assesses also, Sali said.

The counsel for Ghai moved an application seeking permission for home food for his client and also medicines inside jail. The Judge asked CBI to file a reply to the plea.

According to CBI sources, Ghai had put the tax return of the businessman in the scrutiny raising doubts on the claims of losses incurred by him in business.

Later, Ghai approached the businessman through a chartered accountant to settle his case and allegedly demanded Rs 10 lakh for the purpose. During negotiations, the amount was brought down to Rs 3.5 lakh, they said.

After getting input about the deal, a team of CBI officers laid a trap at Ghai's office and arrested him while he was allegedly accepting the bribe, the sources said.

Meanwhile, CBI officials took strong objection to some people meeting Ghai in the courtroom without the court's permission.