Pune district court grants Bail to Tax consultant in GST ITC Scam

Murtuza Jabirbhai Tinwala Vs Director General of GST Intelligence (Pune District Court)

1] This is a first bail application U/sec.439 of Cr.P.C. for grant of bail to applicant Murtuza Jabirbhai Tinwala in Case No. DGGI/PZU/INT/GR­C/23/21­22 for the offences punishable under Sections 132(1)(a), 132)(1)(b), 132(1)(c) punishable under clause (I) or (ii) of Sub­sec 1 or sub­sec 2 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 registered with office of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) Pune Zonal Unit.

2] It is submitted by the applicant that he came to be arrested on 05/03/2022 and since 06/03/2022 he is in judicial custody for the above said offences. It is submitted by the applicant that the allegations against him are that he is involved along with the co­accused Sameer Khan, Imran Bahalwan and Ketan Dugad for having availed and passed input tax credit of Rs.83.72 Crore approximately in a fraudulent manner for M/s. Taj Enterprise, M/s. Siddhi Vinayak Enterprise and M/s. Himalaya Traders. It is submitted that the applicant has nothing to do with the allegations against him and he has no nexus with the alleged offence. The applicant was an employee who worked as an Accountant for six months from 01/01/2021 to 30/06/2021 for Taj Enterprises, Himalaya Traders and Siddhivinayak Enterprise for which the applicant was paid Rs. 20,000/­ per month as salary. The investigation is practically over and no recovery or discovery is to be made from the present applicant. The three main accused have been already released on bail under Section 167(2) of Cr.P.C. by the Court of C.J.M. Pune. Statement of the applicant has been recorded by the investigating agency on 29/09/2021. The laptop which was used by the applicant has already been seized by the I.O. from the custody of the main accused. All the data in relation to the work done by the applicant has been recovered and seized by the investigating officer. The applicant has co­operated with the investigating agency by attending DGGI office and he has already supplied all relevant documents required for investigation. But he has been arrested on 05/03/2022 in violation of mandatory provision of Section 41 Cr.P.C. and in violation of the direction of the Judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar Vs. State of Bihar and another, AIR 2014 (SC)2756. The applicant has no criminal antecedents. He is permanent resident of Bhavnagar Gujrat, having deep root in the society and hence there is no chance of his absconding away.

Hence, prayed for bail.

3] In response to notice the respondent/opponent Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Pune Zonal Unit submitted say through Senior Intelligence Officer and thereby stated that M/s. Taj Enterprise (GSTIN 27AGAPV5911F1ZE) Pune, has been involved in generating fake invoices without any supply of goods. The said Unit has discharged its entire GST liability through ineligible input tax credit (ITC) and registration was taken using forged documents. It was also gathered that M/s. Taj Enterprise had received the entire ITC from another non­existent unit M/s. Siddhi Vinayak Enterprise (GSTIN 27BLWPG6315C1Z1) located in Mumbai which in turn received entire ITC from M/s. Himalaya Traders (GSTIN 24EXGPS9089Q1Z6) located in Gujrat.

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