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TMI Blog2022 (7) TMI 66X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... accumulating very high amount of fraudulent ITC on the basis of goods less and bogus purchase invoices from nonexistent and fraudulent firms and further showing sale invoices at lower tax rate and claiming inverted tax refund by filing and uploading fake documents including CA certificates. It was found that the same modus operandi was used by cartel of economic offenders in filing bogus applications for refund consisting of various fake/bogus firms. During the course of investigation two Charted Accounts namely Sunil Mahlawat and the Gaurav Dhir were found to be misusing their UDIN credentials and issuing false/forged CA certificate for the aforementioned firms to enable them to subsequently claim and avail bogus refunds. Accordingly, they were arrested. During the course of further investigation, two more persons namely Lalit Dogra and Sanjeev Sharma were also found to be involved in the present crime along with the abovementioned Charted Accountants in fraudulently availing inadmissible Input Tax Credit through the abovementioned fake/bogus firms and accordingly they were also arrested. 4. Learned counsel for applicant-accused Gaurav Dhir has argued that applicant-accused Gaura ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ubmissions, learned counsel prayed for granting bail to the applicant-accused Gaurav Dhir. In support of their arguments, learned counsel for the applicant-accused Gaurav has placed reliance upon the authorities cited as P. Chidambaram Vs. Directorate of Enforcement (2020) 13 Supreme Court Cases 791, Tarun Jain Vs.Directorate General of GST Intelligence DGGI, Bail Application no.3771/2021 and Crl.M.A.16552/2021, decided on 26.11.2021, Arnesh Kumar Vs. State of Bihar and another 2014(3) JCC 1529, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation (2013) 7 Supreme Court Cases 439, Paridhi Jain Vs. State, through PP, Bail Application No.742 of 2020, decided on 20.01.2020 (Rajasthan High Court) Shravan A. Mehra Vs. Superintendent of Central Tax, Anti-Evasion, GST Commissioner-ate Advocate, Criminal Petition No.979 of 2019 with Crl.P.No.980 of 2019, decided on 19.02.2019 (Karnataka High Court), Anuj Mahesh Gupta Vs. Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, GST Bhawan, Mumbai & Anr. Writ Petition (Stamp) No.4775 of 2021, decided on 9.3.2021(Bombay High Court), Arnab Manoranjan Goswami Vs. The State of Maharashtra & Ors, Criminal Appeal No.742 of 2020, decided on 27.11.2020, Makemytri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... licant-accused Gaurav prepared forged certificate and also forged signatures of the co-accused Sunil while filing the said CA certificate for claiming refund in respect of the Firms which were found to be fake and more than 200 e-way bills, invoices and the forged CA Certificates associated with various companies have been retrieved from laptop of the accused and the alleged misuse of UDIN was in the knowledge of the applicant-accused Sunil, who did not report the said illegal act either to CGST office or ICAI and hence, in the said manner, the accused persons have committed the said offences with the main accused and they are also involved in the other transactions of similar nature. It is further argued that the applicants-accused are deeply associated with a racket that files fake companies fraudulently claim ITC and claim refund of the same from the government, thereby defrauding the public exchequer and the offences against State committed by the applicants-accused are detrimental for the well-being of society. The said act of the applicants-accused also constitutes misconduct in terms of the Chartered Accountant Act, 1949 as well is an offence under the CGST Act, 2017. It is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cate. As per the respondent, in the many other cases also such forged certificates have been used by the applicant-accused Gaurav Dhir. Meaning thereby, these acts were being committed by applicant-accused Gaurav Dhir in a routine fashion and applicant-accused Sunil was in hand in glove with co-accused Gaurav Dhir in doing so. Whether applicant-accused Sunil received any monetary consideration for usage of his UDIN, password and OTP on the refund portal or not is another aspect but the fact remains that he made mockery of the entire rules and procedure set up by the concerned authorities for the particular purpose and his acts went beyond the realms of professional misconduct. Again, it is very surprising that nothing has come on record from the side of the respondent that they have also reported the matter to the ICAI regarding the said grave professional misconduct of the applicants-accused Gaurav Dhir and Sunil. These are not offences committed by an illiterate or semi-literate or an unemployed youth. These offences are committed by the professionals, who are well qualified and very well employed. They very much knew consequences of their acts. The repercussions are grave leadi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cerned agencies that the professional CA i.e. the person who has issued the certificate had gone through the entire record and had verified the same. The accused have also issued similar certificates in the other cases as well which is clearly reflected in the reply of the respondent. The investigation is not yet complete and the challan is yet to be filed in the present case. Bail to the accused at this stage may hamper the investigation of the case. Hence, the prosecution has reasonable apprehension that the applicants-accused may distort or destroy the evidence, if released on bail. 13. Even the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in case cited as Nimmagadda Prasad Versus Central Bureau of Investigation, AIR 2013 SC 2821, has observed that : "Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offences having deep rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offences affecting the economic of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country." Therefore, considering the gravity and the nature of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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