The Patiala House Court refused to grant bail to a person accused of Wrongful availment of Input Tax Credit (ITC) worth Rs.17.6 Crores.
The petitioner, Yogesh Kumar Goyal is the Director of the company M/s Urja Global Ltd. and has been associated with the company for the last eight years. It is submitted that during interrogation, he was made to sign several documents and incriminating statements for which he has already filed a retraction application on 24.07.2021. It is submitted that the department violated all forms of investigation and foisted a false case on him. The case of the department is that petitioner allegedly submitted bogus bills to claim ITC, however, in the remand application, no details of single invoice has been provided upon the strength of which he allegedly used to claim ITC.
It has been submitted that the remand application mentions certain suppliers which are L-1 and are bogus regarding which petition does not have any business relationship. The allegation with respect ITC claim from bogus invoices with M/s Jetibai Grand Sons Pvt. Ltd. However, na such invoices were ever issued by the said concern. It is submitted that the case of the department is far fetched and imaginary. The company had shifted his registered office from Netaji Subhash Place to Peeragarhi after due information to the concerned department. It is submitted that all the evidence is documentary in nature and there is no scope of tampering with the evidence.
The department opposed the application on the grounds that accused have utilized and availed fraudulent ineligible ITC to the tune of Rs. 17.6 crores as such committed a serious economic offence. It is submitted that after analysis of data available with the department and conducting preliminary verification of the taxpayers involved in a chain of transactions, it appeared that M/s Jetibai Grand Sons Services (1) Pvt. Ltd. alongwith various other firms including M/s Urja Global Ltd are involved in fraudulent availing and passing on ineligible ITC. M/s JGSIPL purportedly shows itself as engaged in procurement of battery, solar panel and also shows itself as receiving job work services attracting GST mainly from three parties including M/s Urja Global Ltd which after verification are found to be non-existent at their registered premises.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dr. Pankaj Sharma while refusing to grant bail observed that the accused has been interrogated in JC, however, he has failed to divulge any relevant information to the 10 and is apparently evasive. One of the co-accused Dhiraj Sisodia is not coming forward despite issuance of summons for his statement before the department. Investigation of this case is at initial stage and considering the conduct, a case of clear necessity for his further incarceration is made out. It is very likely that the accused would abuse his iberty upon his release by destructing evidence or alerting other accused persons in the given facts and circumstances. The likelihood of the accused interfering with the fair investigation cannot be ignored. Accordingly, considering the facts and circumstances, no ground is made out for the grant of the ball at this stage.
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