TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (5) TMI 916
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....nt, while pressing the bail application, submits that the applicant has been falsely implicated in this case without sufficient basis/material and without assessing any tax liability and having regard to the scheme of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act of 2017") as provided under sections 69, 73, 74, 79 and Section 62 of the Act of 2017 without assessing tax liability, the arrest of the accused person may not be made, which is against the scheme of the Act of 2017. 4. While drawing attention of this Court towards the arrest memo, a copy of which has been placed on record, it is submitted that no grounds have been shown in the arresting memo which may justify the arrest of the applicant and vague language has been used therein. It is further submitted that the applicant is neither the proprietor nor having any position in any of the alleged firms and he was working on the post of Manager (Operation) in M/s Emblica Bio Private Limited and a search is shown to have been conducted at the office of the above company on 20.03.2024 and during such search certain incriminating documents, electronic devices are shown to have been recovered f....
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....th the creation of 97 fake firms and also in selling them to the main accused- Deepanshu Srivastava, however, admittedly the applicant was not holding any position in these firms. It is further submitted that pertaining to the search at the office of M/s Emblica Bio Private Limited the signature of the applicant has been taken under duress and the shelf-firms, which are being attached with the applicant, were granted registration number as per rule 8 and 9 of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the "Rules of 2017") and after due verification of their credentials, they were registered, moreover, no money pertaining to any illegal claim of input tax credit has been received by the applicant and illegal income by taking fake input tax credits could only be attributed against co-accused- Deepanshu Srivastava, who has already been enlarged on bail by this court vide order dated 19.03.2024 passed in criminal misc.bail application no.2391 of 2014 and case of the applicant stands on better footing than the case of co-accused- Deepanshu Srivastava. 9. It is further submitted that the applicant is in jail since 29.03.2024 having no previous cr....
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....on hands. In this regard, the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide order dated 07.11.2023 passed in Criminal Appeal No. Nil of 2023, arising out of S.L.P. (Crl.) No. 10810 of 2023, 'The State of Jharkhand vs. Dhananjay Gupta @ Dhananjay Prasad Gupta' has also been highlighted, wherein it is opined that at any rate mere claim of innocence or undertaking to participate in the trial or absence of specific allegation cannot be assigned as reasons for grant of bail in case of offences of serious nature. It is requested that having regard to the magnitude of the crime wherein the State has been inflicted loss of crores of rupees of input tax, the applicant is not entitled to be released on bail. Learned counsels for the respondent Union of India (Department of Revenue, Directorate of GST Intelligence, Lucknow Zonal Unit) have also placed reliance upon the following case-laws:- i. 2019 (25) G.S.T.L. 185 (Telengana) (P.V. Ramana Reddy Vs. Union) of India; ii. 2023 (76) G.S.T.L. 146 (S.C.) (State of Gujarat Vs. Choodamani Parmeshwaran Iyer); iii. (2013) 7 SCC 466 (Nimmagadda Prasad Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation; iv. 2023 (69) ....
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....d to change the password of the firms once bought and sold to Deepanshu and provide details of ID, password along with KYC documents to Deepanshu Srivastava. ii. Making amendments in the GST registration like change in name of the firm, changing email id and mobile numbers of fraudulently obtained GST registrations. Mobile numbers, email ids were mostly provided by Deepanshu Srivastava and sometimes created by him. iii. Till date he has sold 77 firms at a cost of Rs. 35000-50000 each and obtained GST registration of 20 firms for Deepanshu Srivastava. iv. The Applicant along with sharing the Id, password of the firms to Deepanshu Srivastava also used to maintain a database of GST id, password, e-way bill id, passwords of the firms operated or controlled by Deepanshu Srivastava. The Applicant used to file GST registrations, apply for amendments in GST registrations, generating e-way bills using these ids and passwords. v. In addition to the above, Applicant used to issue fake invoices/bills, creation of supply chain using fraudulently obtained GST registrations, maintaining tally database, all for Deepanshu Srivastava. vi. The Applicant us....
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....eeping in view the fact that the applicant is in jail in this case since 29.03.2024 and investigation appears to have reached at an advanced stage and nothing has been shown before this court which may justify the further detention of the applicant in prison and also keeping in view that the alleged offence is punishable with upto 5 years imprisonment and still no formal FIR or complaint has been filed by the Department and also keeping in view that the role of the instant applicant appears to be much lesser than the role of the main accused- Deepanshu Srivastava who is accused of receiving false/illegal input tax credits without supply of goods which is not the case with the applicant, a case of bail is emerging in favour of the applicant, however, apprehension of the Department pertaining to non-cooperation of the applicant in investigation while on bail may be taken care of by placing adequate conditions upon the applicant. 15. In result, the instant bail application moved by the applicant is hereby allowed. 16. Let the accused/applicant- Mohit Kumar, involved in above-mentioned case, be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond with two sureties in the like amoun....