The seriousness of economic offences, such as GST evasion, and the need for custodial interrogation in cases involving forgery and economic crimes.

JUDGMENT

BAIL APPLN. 3408/2022

1. The present application has been filed seeking anticipatory bail on behalf of the applicant in FIR No.515/2022 under Sections 420/467/468/471/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 registered at PS KN Katju Marg.

2. The present FIR was registered on the complaint of one, Umang Garg (hereinafter `complainant'), wherein the complainant alleged that he had appointed the applicant, who was a CA, to look into books of accounts of his business. The applicant was looking after day-to-day business of the complainant and accounts related transactions for the last two years in respect of M/s Ulagarasan Impex Pvt Ltd, the company of the complainant.

3. It has been alleged in the FIR that the applicant induced the complainant to purchase goods/material through different firms, which the applicant claimed to be of his known persons. The complainant started purchasing goods/materials, through Bills/E-way Bills from the said firms and the complainant was regularly making payments to the said firms. The applicant made the complainant deposit payments of the said goods in various accounts, existing in different names and was adjusting the payments against the said firms on his own. However, the complainant later got to know that the said firms are bogus and non-existent.

4. The complainant has also alleged that the applicant and his associates have duped him of Rs.2,81,99,475/- by creating fake, forged and fabricated firms and received payments including GST in different accounts against the purchased goods from the complainant, but have not deposited GST with the GST department.

5. In the Status Report filed on behalf of the State, it has been stated that the complainant was arrested by the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI), Gurugram on 5th April, 2022 on the ground that various companies owned by him were involved in GST evasion by way of availing and passing fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) claims. Ultimately, the complainant was granted bail on 19th April, 2022 after depositing Rs.1 crore as GST. After his release, the complainant tried to contact the applicant but the applicant started avoiding the complainant.

6. It is further stated that during the course of investigation, the complainant produced copies of invoices and e-way bills issued in the name of his company by the aforesaid firms and also produced one pen drive of telephonic conversations between the complainant and the applicant, in which the applicant accepted the fact of doing business with the complainant and also admitted that he had received Rs.3.5 crores from the complainant. During investigation, it also came to light that an amount of Rs.10,00,000/- was also transferred from the account of the complainant to the account of the applicant.

7. The addresses of the companies, which had raised invoices/e-way bills were also verified during investigation and were found to be locked. The statement of one Gunjan Nagpal, who was an employee of M/s Asian Enterprises, one of the firms which issued invoices to the complainant, was also recorded. In his statement, Gunjan Nagpal stated that, M/s Asian Enterprises, was run by one Deepak Agarawal and Aman Gupta.

8. Senior counsel appearing on behalf of the applicant submits that the applicant has throughout joined investigation as well as cooperated in the investigation. He further submits that the applicant has nothing to do with the GST evasion allegations against the complainant as the applicant never worked on accounts/returns of the complainant or complainant's companies such as M/s Ulgarasan Impex Pvt. Ltd. and the regular accounting and filing work is handled by the team of accountants of the complainant. In this regard, he has drawn attention of the Court to the bail application filed by the complainant (Annexure B) and the reply of the DGGI (Annexure C), in which no allegations have been made against the applicant. It is further stated that the present FIR has been