Court grants bail to businessman accused of availing wrongful ITC through fake invoices

A Delhi court has granted bail to a businessman, accused of wrongful availment and passing of Input Tax Credit (ITC) on purchase and sale of goods by allegedly issuing fake invoices without the actual delivery of goods.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dr Pankaj Sharma, in the order passed on March 30, while granted bail to businessman Vikas Goyal said: "The accused's release will not interdict with the fair and free investigation in any manner and the progress of the investigation. Also, the evidence qua accused seems to be in possession of the department".

The accused businessman was represented by Advocate R K Wadhwa, Adv Tariq Ahmed and Vinay Vats in the matter. They submitted that the accused is a law-abiding citizen and commands a good reputation in the society and business circle.

They submitted that the accused has been falsely implicated and have clean antecedents and pursuant to his arrest, he has not been interrogated in judicial custody which is making it clear that he is no more required for custodial interrogation, argued the lawyers.

Lawyers also submitted that the allegation of the prosecution that the applicant is the mastermind of forming the bogus firms is wrong as said firms are different entities and the same are run by their respective proprietors.

They also submitted that under GST laws vicarious liability cannot be undertaken as the tax of one taxable person cannot be recovered from another taxable person. It is submitted that the applicant has been made a scapegoat.

The court, while passing the order, noted that: "Even assuming that the accused is prima facie guilty of a grave offence, the bail cannot be refused in an indirect process of punishing the accused person before he is convicted. Furthermore, there is no justification for classifying offence into different categories such as economic offences and for refusing bail on the ground that the offence involved belonging to a particular category. It cannot, therefore, be said that ball should invariably be refused in cases involving socio-economic offences."

According to the prosecution, four non-existent firms were created by the main perpetrators to pass-on ITC of Rs 54 crore, primarily to 14 other firms. These firms were not only involved in issuing goods-less invoices on a commission basis but also used such invoices for claiming IGST refund on the export of goods.

Along with businessman Vikas Goyal, another businessman Gopal Aggarwal also arrested in the same case whose bail petition is pending before the court for hearing.

( With inputs from ANI )