The Jharkhand High Court has granted anticipatory bail to the beneficiary of Input Tax Credit (ITC) under Goods and Service Tax (GST) arising from a fake firm.
The bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay has observed that the assessment has already been quashed and the matter has been remanded back to the assessment authority apart from the quashment of the criminal case instituted in Bokaro Steel City relating to a similar nature of offence, therefore the privilege of anticipatory bail was extended to the petitioner.
The petitioner/assessee sought for the grant of anticipatory bail, as she is apprehending her arrest. It has been alleged that M/s. P.K. Traders at Telco, Jamshedpur being a non-existent Firm/Entity carried out transactions and claimed an amount of Rs. 7.23 Crores by way of Input Tax Credit without there being actual movement of goods and as such has defrauded the government exchequer of due taxes. The petitioner has been implicated as being one of the beneficiaries of the Input Tax Credit.
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The petitioner submitted that for the same set of allegations another First Information Report was instituted at Bokaro being Bokaro Steel City P.S. Case No. 121/2018 which had already been quashed by this Court in Cr.M.P. No. 3318 of 2019. The order of assessment was challenged in the writ petition in which the Court had quashed the demands raised against the petitioner and remanded the matter back to the assessment authority.
The department contended that the petitioner has given a wrong account number to GST Officials.
The court granted the anticipatory bail to the petitioner and directed to surrender before the learned court below within a period of four weeks and on her surrender, she shall be released on bail on furnishing bail bond of Rs. 10,000 with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of Judicial Magistrate, Jamshedpur.
Case Title: Renu Singh Versus The State of Jharkhand
Case No.: A.B.A. No. 1210 of 2024
Date: 30.08.2024
Counsel For Petitioner: Nitin Kr. Pasari
Counsel For Respondent: Manoj Kumar
