The Delhi High Court granted the bail to the person accused of availing fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) amounting to Rs.10.84 Crores.
The applicant, Raghav Agarwal was arrested for having allegedly committed “an offence specified in clause (a) or clause (b) or clause (c) or clause (d) of sub section (1) of section 132 of the Central Goods and Service Tax, 2017, which is punishable under clause (i) or (ii) of sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) of the said section.
Mr. Gupta, the counsel for the petitioner pointed out that the respondent has issued a letter alleging that M/s Dreamz International had availed of fraudulent or inadmissible ITC amounting to Rs.2,60,44,887 and the applicant was requested to deposit the said amount in DRC-03 challans and submit the same via e-mail. Concededly, the letter was not issued under any of the provisions of the GST Act.
On the other hand Mr Aggarwala, counsel appearing for the respondent states that the said figure has now swelled to Rs.10,84,00,000.
It is also conceded that no show-cause notice has been issued to the applicant as yet and no proceedings for assessing the exact amount have been initiated. Although, the applicant has been arrested and the respondent proposes to launch prosecution without show cause notice or initiation of any assessment proceedings. According to the respondent, it is not necessary to undertake any proceedings for the determination of the tax due for launching prosecution for evasion of tax.
The singl judge bench of Justice Vibhu Bakhru directed that the applicant must be released on interim bail on his furnishing a Personal Bond in the sum of Rs.1 lakh with two sureties of the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court/duty magistrate.
The court further imposed various conditions on the applicant.
Firstly, the applicant would join the investigation and cooperate with the respondent. The applicant shall appear before the concerned officer as and when required.
Secondly, the applicant shall not leave the National Capital Territory of Delhi except to travel to Lucknow (as this court is informed that the applicant’s family resides in Lucknow) with prior permission of the concerned investigating officer.
Thirdly, the applicant will surrender his passport to the concerned trial court/Duty Magistrate.
Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta along with Advocates Vibhooti Malhotra and Bharat Sharma appeared for the petitioner.
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