Sheetal Mittal Vs State of Rajasthan (Rajasthan High Court)
Denial of Anticipatory Bail in case where GST Number and Firm Name were fabricated
The Hon’ble Supreme court in the matter of Sheetal Mittal Etc. v. The State of Rajasthan & Anr. Etc. [Special Leave to Appeal Crl. Nos. 5491-5500/2023 dated May 12, 2023] held that anticipatory bail cannot be granted if a taxpayer fabricates the firm name and GST number and other details were found to be non-existent.
Facts:
Sheetal Mittal and Padam (“the Petitioners”) are engaged in the trade and business at Delhi and received certain goods from the accused Harsh Garg and Sarvesh. The Petitioners contended that the crime in question is purely of civil nature, and it is a case of alleged non-payment of dues and not that of cheating and like offences, so the bail should be granted.
State of Rajasthan and Anr. (“the Respondents”) vehemently and fervently opposed the bail application and submitted that the documents submitted by the accused-petitioners during the course of investigation were found to the fabricated as the GST number, name of the firm and other details were found to be non-existent.
The Respondents further contend that accused petitioners submitted a forged bill indicating the purchase of the recovered clothes, and further the investigation also reveals that accused Harsh Garg and Sarvesh purchased the clothes from the complainants and after inducing them to deliver the goods, supplied the clothes to the petitioners and petitioners illegally sold the same goods in the market, thus accused-petitioners along with accused Harsh Garg and Sarvesh duped the complainants and causing them loss in tune to approximately rupees three crores.
The Hon’ble High Court of Rajasthan, in this case, held that an investigation against the accused person is still pending, and custodial investigation may further lead to recovery and disclosure of facts for the allegedly misappropriated goods and hence, declined to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioners.
Aggrieved by the decision of the Hon’ble High court, Petitioners seeks Special Leave to Appeal before the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
Issue:
Whether fabrication of documents can be a cause for the denial of anticipatory bail?
Held:
The Hon’ble Supreme Court in [Special Leave to Appeal Crl. Nos. 5491-5500/2023] held as under:
