A division Bench of the Bombay High Court grants bail to the Mr. Anuj Mahesh Gupta, arraigned for receiving fake invoices and thereby taking input tax credits.
The application for bail was filed by the Petitioner, Mr.Anuj Mahesh Gupta, who was booked under S. 69(1) of the MGST Act , for receiving fake invoices of value not less than Rs. 277 Crores and taking input tax credit of not less than Rs. 31 Crores and thereby committing offences under S.132(1)(b) and (c) of the and MGST Act and for violating various provisions under Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
Deferring the hearing on the contention of the petitioner as to the legality of the arrest by the Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, the Court enlarged the petitioner on bail upholding the basic principle of Criminal Justice System, which postulates “Bail not Jail”. The Court observed that the petitioner had been in jail for 54 days and no charge sheet had been filed so far. As the charges levelled against the petitioner were punishable only for term up to 5 years, the Court opined that Sec. 167 (2)(a)(ii) of Criminal Procedure Code would be applicable, and the accused shall be entitled to statutory bail upon completion of 60 days. Further, as per the facts of the case, the petitioner had already made payment of Rs.4,68,66,408.00 post arrest. In the light of all these, the Bench observed that there is no such compelling reason for further detaining the petitioner. The reasoning of the Division Bench was based on the rulings in Daulat Samirmal Mehta Vs. Union of India(2021) and Arnab Manoranjan Goswami Case.
Accordingly, the Petitioner was ordered to be released on bail contingent upon his furnishing cash surety of Rupees Five Lakhs before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, 8th Court, Esplanade, Mumbai. The petitioner was further directed to furnish one solvent surety of the like amount before the aforesaid authority, within 2 weeks of his release. The court also directed the petitioner to cooperate with the investigation and to restrain from interfering in it or tampering with any evidence or influencing/ intimidating any witness. The passport of the petitioner is directed to deposited before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, 8th Court, Esplanade, Mumbai.
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