Mohd. Shamshad Saifi Vs State of Haryana and Another (Punjab and Haryana High Court)
The Punjab and Haryana High Court considered a petition filed under Section 439 of the Cr.P.C. seeking regular bail in a complaint registered under Section 132 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, before the ACJM, Gurugram. The complaint arose from intelligence and data analysis indicating that several entities, including M/s Jay Maa Enterprises, M/s National Sales Corporation, M/s Lata Sales, and M/s Techno Electrical & Sales, were non-existent and engaged in issuing fake invoices and fraudulently passing Input Tax Credit (ITC). Verification of their registered premises showed they were untraceable. M/s Techno Electrical & Sales had filed only GSTR-1 and passed fake ITC of ₹98.09 crore to M/s Lata Sales, which further passed ₹69.59 crore in fake ITC to 44 recipient firms, most of which were found non-existent or fraudulently operated. One existing beneficiary, M/s Aisha Enterprises, admitted to receiving “goodless invoices” and identified the petitioner as the person arranging such invoices and returning payments after deducting a 9% commission. The petitioner was traced, and documents recovered during a search were seized. In his recorded statement, the petitioner admitted creating the fake firms, issuing fake invoices without actual supply, and later selling the firms while continuing to assist in their operations. Based on these allegations, the complaint was filed.
