₹11 crore GST Evasion case: Jharkhand HC grants Bail considering Prolonged Period of Custody [Read Order]

The High Court of Jharkhand, granted bail to the petitioner in a ₹11 crore Goods and Service Tax ( GST ) evasion case, considering his prolonged custody of over two months and the maximum punishment of five years under the Central Goods and Service Tax ( CGST ) Act, 2017,

Kumar Luv Agarwal, petitioner-assessee, was accused in Complaint Case No. 2933 of 2025 for offences under Sections 132(1)(b), 132(1)(c), and 132(5) of the Central Goods & Services Tax, 2017, before the court of Shri Abhishek Prasad, Special Judge, Economic Offences, Jamshedpur. He was alleged to have evaded GST of ₹11.00 crore for the financial years 2021 onwards.

The petitioner counsel submitted that the prosecution report had already been filed and highlighted that the maximum punishment for GST evasion was five years. It was also submitted that the petitioner had been in custody for over two months.

GST evasion occurs when a person or business deliberately avoids paying Goods and Services Tax, either by failing to register for GST or by underreporting or misreporting their taxable transactions.

The department counsel, stated that the petitioner had created multiple fake firms to evade GST and informed that a charge sheet had already been filed in the case under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (B.N.S.)

Justice Ambuj Nath taking into account the petitioner’s period of custody, decided to grant bail. The petitioner was ordered to be released on furnishing bail bonds of ₹20,000 along with two sureties of the same amount each, to the satisfaction of Abhishek Prasad, Special Judge, Economic Offences, Jamshedpur, East Singhbhum, in connection with Complaint Case No. 2933 of 2025.