The Delhi High Court refused to cancel anticipatory bail to management of ‘Milk Food’ in alleged Fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) availment case.
The Petitioner, Central Goods and Service Tax Delhi East is investigating a case of fictitious firms engaged in generating and passing on fake input tax credit by issuing bogus invoices without actual supply of goods. It is alleged that M/s Milkfood Limited is at the center of this network and has availed huge ITC from firms that have been proved to be fictitious and non-existent during the investigation carried out by the petitioner. It is alleged that the preliminary investigations have revealed that M/s Milkfood Ltd. has availed fake ITC of Rs. 54.86 crores from M/s Maya Impex, M/s Aditya Sales, M/s Shiv Muskaan Traders and M/s Shri Nidhivan Foods which were being operated by one Sh. Ashish Aggarwal.
The Patiala House Court directed that in the event of arrest of the applicants namely Naval Kumar, Sanjeev Kothiala, Harmesh Mohan Sood and Sudhir Awasthi, they be released on bail on furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs.2 lacs each with surety of like amount to the satisfaction of IO/Commissioner, GST.
The petitioner seeks directions thereby to set aside the order dated 24.11.2020 passed by the Patiala House Courts, in bail application thereby, granting anticipatory bail to the respondents and consequentially cancel the same.
The Single Bench of Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar held that once bail granted should not be cancelled in a mechanical manner without there being any supervening circumstances which are not conducive to fair trial. It cannot be cancelled on a request from the side of the complainant/investigating agency unless and until it is established that the same is being misused and it is no longer conducive in the interest of justice to allow the accused any further to remain on bail. No doubt, the bail can be cancelled only in those discerning few cases where it is established that a person to whom the concession of bail has been granted is misusing the same.
The court while refusing to cancel the anticipatory bail noted that the respondents have joined the investigation and there are no allegations that they have not cooperated in the said investigation.
Senior Standing Counsel Harpreet Singh, Advocates Arunesh Sharma and Suhani Mathur appeared for the Central Government and Advocate Harsh Sethi appeared for the Accused.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan AdFree. We welcome your comments at info@taxscan.in
