Chandigarh Court refuses to transit the remand of Applicant accused of Wrongful Availment of ITC to Court of CMM in New Delhi

The Chandigarh Court has refused to transit the remand of Applicant accused of Wrongful Availment of ITC to the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) in New Delhi.

The applicant, Ravinder Baweja submitted that the Court at Chandigarh is not a Court of competent jurisdiction to entertain the instant matter. It is averred that the Companies Firms address given in the registration. The respondent has also disclosed that during preliminary investigation in respect of entities being operated by the applicant, it was revealed that these entities have passed on fake ITC to the buyers in respect of goods, purchases of which were never shown in their record. The preliminary investigation further revealed that loss of nearly Rs. 182 crore has been caused to the exchequer.

It is submitted by the respondent, DGGI that cause of action in the instant case is Pan India, as the said companies/firms have passed inadmissible ITC's on the strength of fake invoices to the different firms located at different places including Union Territory, Chandigarh, the outward supplies of fake companies floated by the applicant are not merely limited to Delhi, these are scattered over large geographical area including Chandigarh. It is also submitted that every Zonal Unit of DGGI is an independent entity and being a premier investigating agency in cases of GST frauds, can undertake investigation on Pan India basis. It is further submitted that the fake ITC's passed on by the companies/firms floated by the applicant amounting to Rs. 15.46 crores has already been recovered by the DGGI, Chandigarh Zonal Unit.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Aman Inder Singh while rejecting the application ruled that all the individual transactions which amount to offence under the GST Act, 2017 are in fact multiple transactions arising out of a single pan India scheme of violating the provisions of GST Act, 2017 with a view to deprive the exchequer of crores of rupees of revenue. The individual transactions are not independent transactions. These are inseparable emanations of a single criminal conspiracy and plan. It, therefore leaves no doubt in my mind that the offences alleged in the instant matter have been committed in all the territorial jurisdictions where ITC's were wrongfully and illegally sent.

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