The District Court Pune has granted bail to the accused allegedly involves in the 83.72 Cr Input Tax Credit scam.
The allegations against the applicant, Murtuza Jabirbhai Tinwala is that he is involved along with the coaccused Sameer Khan, Imran Bahalwan, and Ketan Dugad for having availed and passed input tax credit of Rs.83.72 Crore approximately in a fraudulent manner for M/s. Taj Enterprise, M/s. Siddhi Vinayak Enterprise and M/s. Himalaya Traders.
It is submitted by the applicant that he has nothing to do with the allegations against him and he has no nexus with the alleged offence. The applicant was an employee who worked as an Accountant for six months from 01/01/2021 to 30/06/2021 for Taj Enterprises, Himalaya Traders, and Siddhivinayak Enterprise for which the applicant was paid Rs. 20,000/ per month as salary. The investigation is practically over and no recovery or discovery is to be made from the present applicant.
The honorable district court has observed that it is evident that the three main accused Sameer Khan, Imran Bahalwan, and Ketan Dugad were responsible for availing and passing on input tax credit by raising fake invoices and the applicant acted upon the instructions of the main accused with whom he was working as a tax consultant. It appears that the applicant received remuneration of Rs.20,000/ per month for doing his job. It does not appear that the applicant is the beneficiary of the transactions involved. The three main accused are already released on default bail.
Further observed by the court that, it does not appear that there is anything to be recovered from the present applicant. It seems that the investigation can be carried out without further detention of the applicant. Under such circumstances, the further detention of the applicant/accused is not warranted although the investigation is shown to be still in progress, especially when to this date there are no formal accusations against the applicant in the form of FIR or complaint.
The Coram of Sri V.K.Yawalkar Addl. Sessions Judge, Pune has held that “the evidence, in this case, is mostly of documentary nature and also consists of digital record and it is in the custody of GST department and therefore, there does not appear any chances of tampering with the prosecution evidence, if the accused is released on bail. The applicant is shown to be a resident of Bhavnagar, Gujrat, having roots in the society and thus, there does not appear any likelihood of his absconding away. The accused has no criminal antecedents. Moreover, the maximum punishment prescribed for the offence is imprisonment of up to 5 years. Hence, considering the same, I find that applicant/accused can be released on bail subject to certain conditions”.
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