Case Law Details
Akhil Krishan Maggu & Anr. Vs Deputy Director (Punjab and Haryana High Court)
The persons who are having established manufacturing units and paying good amount of direct or indirect taxes; persons against whom there is no documentary or otherwise concrete evidences to establish direct involvement in the evasion of huge amounts of tax, should not be arrested prior to determination of liability and imposition of penalty. Similarly, arrest of Chartered Accountant or Advocates who had filed returns or otherwise assisted in business but are not beneficiary or part of fraud merely on the basis of statement without any corroborative evidence linking the professional with alleged offence should be avoided. It is well known that if top brass of a running concern is arrested, there are all possibilities of closure of unit which results into unemployment and wastage of precious natural resources.
In the case in hand, we find that Petitioner No. 2 was interrogated on 11.9.2019 & 12.9.2019 by DGGI and thereafter handed over to DRI, who arrested him. There is nothing on record showing admission by Petitioner No. 2 and no further statement has been recorded in jail though he is in judicial custody since 13.9.2019. Petitioner No. 1 has already put appearance on various occasions and there is nothing in file to show which indicates that Petitioner No. 1 was connected with alleged illegal refund sought by Exporters. Concededly, the Petitioner No. 1 is neither proprietor nor partner nor shareholder of any Exporter Concern/Firm/Company, who availed refund of IGST. There is no evidence of transfer of funds in the accounts of Petitioners or withdrawal of cash by any one of them. The Petitioner No. 1 is in legal profession since 2017 and after introduction of GST he had not dealt with directly or indirectly with export consignments. The Respondent has produced copy of an order dated 1.10.2019 (date of hearing 22.5.2019) passed by Tribunal wherein Petitioner No. 1 has represented Appellants as an Advocate which buttress the argument of Petitioner that he in practice and appeared as an Advocate on behalf of four exporters who availed alleged illegal refund of IGST.
We find that it is case of some mis-understanding between Petitioners and officers of Respondent/DGGI who now want to implicate Petitioner and his family members. The investigation is going on for last couple of months and Respondents are unable to produce any evidence showing direct involvement of Petitioners. The Respondent did not record statement while both the Petitioners were in judicial custody for a week in FIR dated 15.8.2019 lodged at the instance of DGGI, and till date no statement of Petitioner No. 2 has been recorded though he is in judicial custody since 13.9.2019. The Respondent-DGGI handed over Petitioner No. 2 to DRI after recording his statement and there is nothing on record to show that he made any confession. The Respondents are recording one after another statement of Petitioner No. 1 (Akhil Krishan Maggu) with perhaps to intimidate him in giving a self incriminating confession. They have not been able to arrest him because of the oral assurance given before this Court, and have not handed him over to DRI for arrest because he is not required by DRI in any case. Intention of Respondents seems only to arrest Petitioner No. 1, one way or the other, which is evident from the fact that Petitioner No. 2 was handed over to DRI without concluding investigation at least qua petitioner no.2 and there is nothing contained in different affidavits of Respondent, filed before this Court, indicating that involvement of Petitioner No. 2 is apparent from his statements.
Though the Petitioners have prayed quashing of summons, however on the directions of this Court both the Petitioners had already put their appearance. The Petitioner No. 2 was handed over to DRI on 12.9.2019 and since 13.9.2019 he is in judicial custody, hence no direction is warranted qua him, however qua Petitioner No. 1 (Akhil Krishan Maggu), we deem it appropriate to direct to Respondent not to take him in custody without prior approval of this court. The Petitioner No. 1 shall appear before Respondent as and when summoned between 10 AM to 5 PM.
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