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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 ..... t to file said certificate or not, has become irrelevant especially when the forged document has been presented before the concerned authorities for the purpose of facilitation of refund. The entire argument that there was no legal requirement for the applicant-accused Gaurav Dhir to file such certificate as CA falls to the ground when the said certificate has been forged by the accused and used for the purpose of refund. It is not the matter of mere initiation of refund under the CGST Act only, rather now it appears to have become an offence punishable under Sections 420/467/468/471 of IPC wherein the maximum punishment prescribed is imprisonment for life. So far as offences punishable under Section 132 of CGST Act, 2017 is concerned, as already discussed above, apart from these offences, the offence punishable under Sections 420/467/468/471, IPC are also prima facie made out against the applicants-accused Gaurav Dhir and Sunil. The authorities relied upon by learned counsel for the applicants-accused are not applicable to the facts of the present case especially when the applicants-accused have been involved in forging certificate and submitting the same to the concerned autho ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 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 Gaurav Dhir has been falsely implicated in the present case and he has nothing to do with the fake and fraudulent firms of the other co-accused and he has only submitted and checked the documents as provided by the main accused and on the basis of these documents, he filed claim for refund and the details were already there in the portal of the respondent and the respondent are hiding inefficiency of their own officials who issued refund without checking the documents and he further added that the CA certificate alleged to be for ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 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, Makemytrip(India) Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Union of India Ors.W.P.(c) 525/2016 CM 2153/2016, decided on 1.9.2016, Union of India Ors. Vs. M/s Make My Trip (India) Pvt. Ltd. Civil Appeal No.8080/2018, Sanjay Chandra Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation (2012) 1 Supreme Court Cases 40, Akhil Krishan Maggu Vs. Deputy Director, 2019 SCC OnLine (P H) 5416 and Jayachandran Alloys Vs. Superintendent W.P. 5501 of 2019 (Madras HC). 5. Learned counsel for the applicant-accused Sunil has argued that the applicant-accused Sunil Mahlawat is a yo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nce, 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 further argued that the investigation of the case is at crucial stage and there is strong apprehension that the applicants-accused would destroy the evidence, manipulate witnesses, abscond and commit similar offences in case they are allowed to be released on bail and therefore, the present bail applications of the applicants-accused are liable to be dismissed. 7. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the case file very carefully. 8. In brief, the allegations against the applica ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 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 leading to commiting criminal offences. 11. Learned counsel for the applicants-accused compared the profession of CA with the lawyers and doctors. Mere this analogy reflects how grave the offences committed by these two accused are. Can a lawyer give his professional license or his bar license number to be used by another person, who though has passed professional LLB course but has not obtained license from the concerned Bar Council, to appear in any court by impersonating him. If such lawyer does so, then he is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he 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 the allegations levelled against the applicant-accused and the fact that the investigation of the case is at nascent stage and further considering the fact that now a days economic offences are rampant and should be dealt with the firmness, this court does not deem it proper to grant the concession of bail to both the applicants-accused at this stage. 14. Consequently, keeping in view the gravity and seriousness of the offences, both the present bail applications filed on behalf of the applican ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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