The Gujarat High Court granted bail to journalist Mahesh Langa in an alleged GST fraud case but he remains in custody due to a rejected bail plea in a separate case. Langa faces accusations of falsely claiming GST credits through fake invoices and documents, implicating several co-accused, including family members.
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday (Jan 9th) granted regular bail to senior journalist Mahesh Langa in connection with an alleged GST fraud case. However, Langa, who has been in custody since his arrest on October 8, will not be released as his bail plea in a similar case filed by the Rajkot police was rejected on Wednesday.
The decision to grant bail was made by Justice M.R. Mengdey, who had reserved the verdict after concluding the hearing on January 3. This case marks the first criminal complaint lodged against Langa by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), based on a written complaint by the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI), Ahmedabad zonal unit. The allegations include GST tax credit fraud.
According to the chargesheet filed earlier this week, Langa and 13 co-accused were implicated in a scheme involving fraudulent GST tax credits. Key witnesses cited include Langa’s cousins Manoj and Nilesh Langa, his wife Kavita, and his chartered accountant Jigar Shah.
The DGGI alleges that Langa, as the proprietor of DA Enterprises, falsely claimed GST tax benefits of Rs 6.61 lakh on transactions exceeding Rs 44 lakh by using fake purchase invoices.
“As the proprietor of DA Enterprise, he understated the actual profit of his firm by showing false purchase invoices to evade tax and received false GST tax credit without purchasing any goods,”
stated the DCB in its chargesheet.
Additionally, the chargesheet claims that Langa knowingly utilized forged documents to claim tax credits through Dhruvi Enterprises, a non-existent firm, with the help of co-accused. The scheme allegedly involved the creation of four fake e-way bills amounting to Rs 43.35 lakh for non-existent goods.
In December, Langa was arrested in a separate tax fraud case by the Rajkot police. On Wednesday, a local court rejected his bail plea in that case, meaning he will remain in custody despite being granted bail in the Ahmedabad case.
In a third case concerning possession of confidential government documents, Langa was granted anticipatory bail.
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