The Chhattisgarh High Court has granted bail to accused of passing unauthorised Input Tax Credit (ITC) worth Rs. 63.37 crores based on fake bills.
The bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha has observed that no incriminating has been recovered at the instance of the present applicant and the applicant was not involved in any of the acts as alleged against him consciously or otherwise and the applicant is a transgender person, the applicant is languishing in jail since 06.08.2024.
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Background
An intelligence was received that a person named Badal Gour i.e. present applicant was engaged and operative a web of 06 fake firms and he was the mastermind in operating and managing this fake firms, on 31.07.2024 a summon was issued to applicant to tender oral evidence on which he gave his evidence on 05.08.2024 which was recorded U/s 70 of CGST Act 2017.
He was confronted with the statement of Rahul Bhatija, Pranjal Mishra Proprietor of Mishra Trading Company, Anil Agrawal Director of M/s Dadi Kripa Ispat & Power Limited, wherein he accepted that he was running 06 fake firms.
During the investigation the documents containing the credential of the proprietor and the laptop having the tally data of 05 out of 06 fake firms were recovered and summons were issued to Vikram Mandhani Accountant and the present applicant to appear on 06.10.2024 and the statements were recorded.
It was found that the present applicant was master mind and created 06 fake firms operated and managed the illegal activities done in the said firms he was indulged in availing fraudulent input tax credit of Rs. 29, 13,74,707 from the non-existent tax payers without actual receipt of goods and have also passed on fake input tax credit to various customers without actual supply of goods on perusal of GSTR-1M of the 06 firms. It was found that the applicant Badal Gour has passed on total input tax credit of 34,23,51,874/- without actual supply of goods with an intent to evade goods and service tax in total the applicant has done total tax evasion.
After the sanction accorded by the Commission CGST and Central Excise Raipur as provided under Section 132(6) of CGST Act 2017 and a complaint has been filed by the Superintendent Prosecution Cell.
Applicant’s Arguments
The applicant argued that the applicant is innocent and he has been falsely implicated in this case. The CGST have intentionally suppressed that one another person, namely, Ishan Gupta is being prosecuted by the DGGI in respect of the same firms for which the CGST is prosecuting the applicant in this case.
The applicant argued that he has been enticed by Ishan Gupta and without being aware of the fraud committed by Ishan Gupta in his name he has been involved in the availing of Input Tax Credit and Tax Evasion. There is no evidence in the charge- sheet which implies any sought of active participation of the applicant in the matter. The charge-sheet/complaint has been filed and the applicant is in jail since 06.08.2024.
Dept’s Arguments
The department contended that from all the facts/evidences and the confessional statement of accused Badal Gaur, it is known that Badal Gaur has caused loss to the Government Exchequer be creating 06 non-existent firms and availing and passing on unauthorized input tax credit of Rs. 63,37,26,581/- on the basis of fake bills. Therefore, he is not entitled to be released on bail.
Conclusion
The court granted regular bail to the applicant subject to furnishing of a personal bond in the sum of Rs.1,00,000 with one solvent surety to the satisfaction of the concerned Court.
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Case Details
Case Title: Badal Gour Versus UOI
Case No.: MCRC No. 7666 of 2024
Date: 14/11/2024
Counsel For Applicant: Navin Shukla
Counsel For Respondent: Ashutosh Singh Kachhawaha
