Case Law Details
Paritosh Kumar Singh Vs State of Chhattisgarh (Chhattisgarh High Court)
Challenge in this writ appeal is to the legality, validity and propriety of the order dated 1.10.2021 passed by the learned Single Judge in WPCR No.469/2021 dismissing the said writ petition filed against the order dated 26.6.2021 passed by the 5th Additional Sessions Judge, Raipur in Criminal Revision No.62/2021 by which the revisional Court affirmed the order dated 12.5.2021 of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Raipur rejecting the application filed by the appellants/petitioners under Section 167 of CrPC for grant of default bail.
02. Facts of the case, in brief, are that the appellants created several fictitious and physically non-existent trading company firms in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra, got them registered in GSTN portal online using identity credential of several persons using forged PAN and issued fake bills to transmit fake Income Tax Credit (ITC) to several other traders. For the said purpose, the appellants had fraudulently shown in their GST returns to have procured several kinds of goods from within and across the State. The Directorate General of Goods and Service Tax Intelligence, Raipur Zonal Unit, Raipur cracked this racket on the basis of intelligence against a taxpayer, namely, M/s Manoj Enterprises, who during the month of July, 2020 and August, 2020, claimed Rs.44.72 crores from ITC by way of trading activities even when their statutory returns did not indicate purchase of any such goods for trade. On the basis of information gathered, the appellants No.1 & 2 were arrested for the offence under Section 132(1)(b) & (c) of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (in short “the Act of 2017”) on 25.1.2021 from Raipur and produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Raipur on the same day whereas appellants No. 3 & 4 were arrested for commission of the said offence from Siwan, Bihar on 25.1.2021 and produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Siwan, who granted transit remand upto Raipur and accordingly, they were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Raipur on 28.1.2021.
03. The appellants/writ petitioners filed an application under Section 167(2) of CrPC for granting them default bail as despite lapse of 60 days from the date of their judicial custody, no charge sheet was filed by the respondent/GST authority against them. The said application was rejected by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Raipur vide order dated 12.5.2021, which was subsequently affirmed by the revisional Court vide order dated 26.6.2021 and the writ petition filed against the said order was also dismissed by the learned Single Judge.
4. Learned counsel for the appellants/writ petitioners has submitted that, admittedly, the appellants were arrested on 25.1.2021 in connection with Crime (DGGI Case) No. 124/2020-21 for offence under Section 132(1)(b) & (c) of the the Act of 2017 and produced before the Judicial Magistrate, who granted their judicial custody but no charge sheet within 60 days from their judicial custody was filed and only a complaint was filed on 25.3.2021 by respondent No.2/Senior Intelligence Officer, DGGI, Zonal Unit, Raipur. Therefore, the learned Single Judge was not justified in dismissing the writ petition and the appellants are entitled to be released on bail by virtue of Section 167(2) of CrPC.
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