TMI Blog2023 (10) TMI 1153X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t Sh. Rajiv Jain S/o Shri Srichand Jain, R/o 201, Prakash House, 4379/4B, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi had filed a complaint at EOW alleging therein that he is a Chartered accountant by profession and when he downloaded his form 26AS from Income Tax portal, he came to know that a GST number has fraudulently been generated in the name of M/s Madhu Enterprises using his PAN number. The complainant further alleged that using this fraudulently obtained GST number, the accused shown the transactions worth Rs. 14.80 Crores in the short duration of July 2019 to November 2019. Present case was registered and investigation was taken up. 2. During the course of investigation, it is found that for the purpose of registration of GST, the address of the firm is mentioned as 3703/03, Near S.D. Mandir, Ambala Cantt, Ambala, Haryana. Landlord of this premise has been examined who stated that he has never lent his property to any one as on the ground floor he is running medicine shop for decades and on the first floor of the said premises he is residing with his family members. 3. During the course of investigation, documents/information were obtained from the GST department. Mobile num ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... egarding the firms namely (1) Verizon Enterprises (2) Impact Enterprises (3) Gupta Traders (4) Hira Plastics (5) Glencore enterprises (6) Parafait Dealers (7) Atlas Sales Traders (8) Banke Bihari Traders (9) Divyanshi Enterprises (10) Global Traders (11) Chaudhary Plastics. This establishes active role played by present applicant and his father Shashi Kant Gupta in opening the bank accounts for fraudulent transactions. 7. Further, on the basis of suspected PAN numbers linked with GST registrations of the firms and mobile numbers surfaced during investigation, details of Bank accounts opened with Bandhan Bank has also been procured and we have received the information regarding nine such accounts opened in the name of different persons/entities with Bandhan Bank. Original account opening forms along with KYC documents have been obtained from Bandhan Bank. 8. Further, on perusal of the bank account of Mis Shashi Plast Pvt. Ltd. maintained with Bandhan Bank, it has been found that an amount of Rs. 3.00 crore (Approx) has been transferred in the accounts of suspected firms namely Global Traders, Parfait Dealers. It is worth mentioning that Shash ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... submitted that there are no direct or indirect allegations against the applicants in the instant FIR. It was further submitted that the applicants have always joined the investigation in compliance of notice issued under Section 160 of the CrPC. It was further submitted that in pursuance to the interim protection granted by this Court, the applicants have joined the investigation and have produced all the documents in their possession to the Investigating Officer. 4. Learned Senior Counsel for the applicants has filed objections to the status report as well as additional status report filed before this Court stating that the claim of the Investigating Officer that the present applicants are not co-operating with the investigation is false. In the objections dated 10.03.2023 on behalf of Shashi Kant Gupta, filed to the status report before this Court, the stand of the applicant is "It is humbly submitted that the applicant and/or his firms ever dealt in any manner whatsoever with M/s Madhu Enterprises, the same is matter of records. The said records must be available with the GST Department, Jamshedpur who conducted the raid at both the office premises of the firms maintained by t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rises were obtained from the GST Department, Jamshedpur. It was found that the said fraudulently opened firm had made transactions worth crores of rupees with eight firms registered with the GST Departments in Delhi and Uttarakhand. As per the investigation, these eight firms were in direct control of the present applicants and it was revealed that the said alleged fraudulent firm M/s Madhu Enterprises had shown goods and articles worth 2.27 Crores sold to three of the aforesaid eight firms of which the applicants herein are directors. It was also pointed out that Mr. Sujeet Singh Hussain, in whose name the aforesaid M/s Madhu Enterprises was registered, has given statements to the effect that he was working as a security guard in the office of present applicants, who got his signatures for opening the bank account and fraudulently got the firm registered in his name as well as other employees. 7. Learned APP for the State, on the instructions of the Investigating Officer, submitted that despite interim protection granted to the present applicants, they did not provide details of the payment against the purchase from the said fraudulent firm and did not even provide the contact nu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it Dealers, Hira Plastic Bhandar, Global Traders, Impact Enterprises, Verizon Traders, Atlas Sales Corporation, Madhu Enterprises it was found that the afore-mentioned companies/firms are having a lot of money transactions with your compames namely Delight Poly Plast, Delight Plastics, Poonam Polyplast, Shashi Plast Private Limited, Shashi Flex Pvt. Ltd. On 29/05/2023 you were asked to give explanations regarding these money transactions and in reply you stated that you will your business tractions documents and will provide the information. Kindly give explanations for these transactions. Ans. I have sent a letter to Jamshedpur GST to provide all documents related to my companies. On receipt of documents I will provide you all information regarding my business with above companies. Ques. You have submitted Income Tax Returns of year 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 of companies/firms namely Poonam Poly Plast and Delight Poly Plast and the afore-mentioned income tax returns clearly shows that you had done business transactions with the companies namely Global Traders, Parfait Dealers, Verizion Traders, Divyanshi Enterprises, Atlas Sales Corporation, Gupta Trading Company. Kindl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ess transaction with suspected firm/companies, the applicant took the plea that he did not remember as the officials of GST Jamshedpur have seized all the records. However the plea is not tenable as search was conducted by GST Jamshedpur on 22.04.2019 at 02 premises of the applicant whereas the suspected transactions of the applicants firms/companies ranges from July 2019 to November 2019. For other general questions about his employees/persons associated with him, the applicant replied that he did not remember anything." 9. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. 10. Learned Senior Counsel for the applicant has vehemently argued that the contents of the status report filed by the Investigating Officer are mala fide. It is stated that in the objections filed to the aforesaid status reports, it has been stated that the requisite documents have been provided. However, it is pertinent to note that in the application for bail as well as in the objections filed to the status report, the stand of the applicants are contradictory with regard to the dealings with M/s Madhu Enterprises. They have also further denied any involvement with Sanjay Kumar, whose statement ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Shashi Kant Gupta is "It is humbly submitted that the applicant and/or his firms ever dealt in any manner whatsoever with M/s Madhu Enterprises, the same is matter of records. The said records must be available with the GST Department, Jamshedpur who conducted the raid at both the office premises of the firms maintained by the applicant and his son". The aforesaid stands taken by the applicants are contradictory and evasive. Although the stand of the applicants is that the documents are with the GST Department, Jamshedpur, it is difficult to believe that the applicants are not able to give the details of contact persons of the aforesaid M/s Madhu Enterprises with whom they have entered into transactions worth crores. 14. The Hon'ble Supreme Court, in State Rep. by the C.B.I. v. Anil Sharma, (1997) 7 SCC 187, while dealing with a plea for anticipatory bail, observed and held as under: "6. We find force in the submission of the CBI that custodial interrogation is qualitatively more elicitation-oriented than questioning a suspect who is well ensconced with a favourable order under Section 438 of the Code. In a case like this effective interrogation of a suspected person is of trem ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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