Manish Kumar Vs Directorate General (Punjab and Haryana High Court)
A Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling has granted bail to two men accused of a ₹107 crore GST fraud, citing a lack of progress in their trial and raising concerns about the investigative practices of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI). The court criticized the DGGI’s focus on securing arrests without following through with timely prosecutions, highlighting a “systemic problem” in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh.
Case Details and Allegations
Petitioners Manish Kumar and Amit Kumar Goyal were arrested on October 9, 2024, after a search operation uncovered evidence of a large-scale tax evasion scheme. The investigation, which began with a suspicious transaction report from the Financial Investigation Unit, alleged that the brothers withdrew substantial sums of cash from bank accounts and created 27 fake firms. It was claimed they used these firms to issue fraudulent GST invoices worth approximately ₹700 crore, availing input tax credit of around ₹107 crore.
The petitioners, through their counsel, argued that their admissions were coerced, and proper legal procedures were not followed. They also pointed out that their custody had lasted for over nine months with little progress in the trial, which had been at the pre-charge evidence stage for six months.
