In a recent ruling, the Delhi High Court has denied the anticipatory bail filed by the Chartered Accountant (CA) accused of Forgery and Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion through false invoices from non-existent entities he was allegedly operating.
The bench of Justice Amit Bansal observed that “the present case is not just relating to the applicant having duped the complainant of a huge sum of money, it also involves allegations of issuing fake invoices and e-way bills for the purposes of GST evasion, which is an economic offence involving loss to the public exchequer. Such offences need to be viewed seriously as the same pose a threat to the economy of the country.”
The anticipatory bail was filed by the CA Aman Gupta against the FIR registered by the Complainant Uman Garg. The complainant alleged that he had appointed the applicant, who was a CA, to look into books of accounts of his business. It has been alleged in the FIR that the applicant induced the complainant to purchase goods/material through different firms, which the applicant claimed to be of his known persons.
The applicant made the complainant deposit payments of the said goods in various accounts, existing in different names and was adjusting the payments against the said firms on his own. However, the complainant later got to know that the said firms are bogus and non-existent.
The complainant has also alleged that the applicant and his associates have duped him of Rs.2,81,99,475/- by creating fake, forged and fabricated firms and received payments including GST in different accounts against the purchased goods from the complainant, but have not deposited GST with the GST department.
The financial transactions between the complainant and the applicant have also been analyzed, which suggest that the applicant had received a sum of Rs.3.5 crores from the complainant.
In the status report filed on behalf of the State, it has been stated that the complainant was arrested by the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI), Gurugram on the ground that various companies owned by him were involved in GST evasion by way of availing and passing fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) claims. Ultimately, the complainant was granted bail on 19th April, 2022 after depositing Rs.1 crore as GST.
Based on the submitted copies of invoices and e-way bills by the complainant, the addresses of the companies, which had raised invoices/e-way bills were also verified during investigation and were found to be locked.
The testimony of Gunjan Nagpal, who was a staff member at M/s Asian Enterprises, one of the companies responsible for sending invoices to the complainant, was also documented. In his deposition, Gunjan Nagpal affirmed that Deepak Agarawal and Aman Gupta were the individuals overseeing the operations of M/s Asian Enterprises.
The bench observed that the applicant has abused the process of the court. Having withdrawn his anticipatory bail application before this Court on 13th October, 2022 with a liberty to approach the Trial Court, the applicant did not file a fresh application for anticipatory bail before the Sessions Court, but preferred an application for surrender cum bail before the Sessions Court.
Due to non-appearance of the applicant on the date fixed for consideration of the aforesaid application, the same was dismissed as not pressed. Thereafter, the present bail application was filed before this Court.
The High court noted that the only justification given by the applicant is that he was willing to deposit a sum of Rs.75 lakhs and settle the matter in the mediation proceedings in respect of the remaining amount. It seemed that the applicant’s intention was to obtain temporary legal safeguard by paying Rs.75 lakhs to the complainant and maintaining this protective status throughout the mediation process.
The bench ruled that the applicant must be provided with several documents and witness statements after taking into account the entire set of circumstances and the case’s context.
It was further stated that there were no good grounds to grant anticipatory bail for the petitioner given the seriousness of the accusations against him, which involve forgery and GST evasion by fabricating invoices from fictitious companies.
In result, the interim protection granted to the applicant CA on 14th March, 2023 was also vacated by the Delhi High Court.
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