The Allahabad High Court has refused bail to Prabha Bhandari, Deputy Commissioner, CGST, Jhansi — an IRS officer — trapped by CBI for accepting Rs. 70 lakh bribe for settling a GST raid on M/S Jay Ambey Plywood & M/S Jai Durga Hardware, Jhansi.
The court reproduced the transcript of a controlled call between the applicant and co-accused Ajay Sharma (Superintendent, CGST, Jhansi). In the conversation, when Sharma informed the applicant that “seventy has been taken from there” and asked whether he should “take gold,” the applicant responded: “okay, take it, then what will you do, okay take it.”
The court held that the “entire chain of direct and circumstantial evidence” was intact despite the applicant being a woman carrying pregnancy of ten weeks, following the Supreme Court in Saumya Chaurasia v. Directorate of Enforcement [(2024) 6 SCC 401] that bail should not be granted mandatorily merely because the accused is a woman.
The trial court was directed to conclude the trial expeditiously. The Supreme Court SLP was subsequently withdrawn.
Prabha Bhandari v. Central Bureau of Investigation | Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 912/2026 | 10 March 2026 | Allahabad HC