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2024 (1) TMI 976 - HC - GSTValidity of grant of anticipatory bail by the lower court - fake bills were made for the purchase of the cigarettes - reversal of ITC - HELD THAT:- In Choodamani Parmeshwaran Iyer [2023 (7) TMI 1008 - SUPREME COURT], the Supreme Court has observed that if any person is summoned under Section 69 of the CGST Act for the purpose of recording his statement, provisions of Section 438 of the CrPC cannot be invoked. In the said case, the accused persons were not appearing before the authorities despite repeated summons being issued to them and had filed an application seeking anticipatory bail. In the present case, it has rightly been contended on behalf of Chirag Goel and Chaman Goel that one of the co-accused persons, Manish Goyal was arrested by the DGGI and therefore, there was a genuine apprehension of arrest. On the basis of the material on record, it appears in the present case that Input Tax Credit has been availed by M/s Radiant Traders on procurement of cigarettes which have been shown to be used as raw material to manufacture ‘smoking mixture’. It is hard to believe that tobacco from high value inputs i.e., cigarettes is used to manufacture a low value output i.e., ‘smoking mixture’. It appears that this was done only to fraudulently obtain Input Tax Credit - In the present case, the accused persons are involved in fraudulently obtaining Input Tax Credit worth Rs. 200 crores by projecting transactions only on paper and without the actual purchase or sale of goods. As a result, they have duped the government exchequer and the taxpayers of a huge amount of money. Considering the aforesaid facts and circumstances, including the fact that Chirag Goel and Chaman Goel are the beneficiaries in an economic fraud involving a large corpus and were evading summons until the grant of anticipatory bail, the accused Chirag Goel and Chaman Goel were not entitled to be admitted on anticipatory bail. The impugned order has been passed without appreciating the material on record and cannot be sustained and hence is set aside. Application disposed off.
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