2026 (3) TMI 403

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....ntral GST Act, 2017 read with Section 20(xv) of the Integrated GST Act, 2017. 2. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case and has no direct role in the alleged fraudulent activities of M/s KH Traders. Learned Senior counsel further submits that the said firm was actually owned and operated by one Abhishek Sharma, whereas petitioner was merely working as an employee in the firm and was drawing a monthly salary of Rs. 25,000/-. Petitioner had no control over the business affairs of the firm and had no knowledge of the alleged fraudulent availment or passing of input tax credit. Learned Senior counsel also submits that nothing incriminating has been recovered from the ....

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....ST registration of M/s KH Traders, and the said account is the only bank account furnished by the taxpayer for GST compliance purposes. Upon scrutiny of the bank statements of the said account, it has been observed that the taxpayer has not made any payments commensurate with, or equivalent to, the value of the invoices purportedly issued by the suppliers. This, according to learned counsel, indicates that the transactions reflected in the invoices were not supported by actual financial dealings. 5. Learned counsel thus submits that the material collected during the course of investigation prima facie shows that fraudulent input tax credit of the amount of Rs.27.35 Crores was availed without any genuine underlying supply of goods, thereb....

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....ticed that, 'Much to the concern of this Court, the empirical data makes it abundantly clear that securing a conviction and concluding the trial is not a matter of priority for the respondent as all its energy is devoted towards curtailing liberty of the prospective accused.' Even the view taken by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Radhika Aggarwal v. Union of India and others, 2025 SCC OnLine SC 449, was also followed by noticing that, 'normally it would be mandatory to conclude assessment proceedings under Section 73, 74 of the CGST Act before initiating criminal prosecution under Section 132 of the CGST Act. However, in exceptional circumstances, the same can be circumscribed after providing detailed reasons for the same.' In Sarthak Jain'....