Senior Journalist Mahesh Langa
Credit: Facebook/Mahesh Langa
Ahmedabad: A metropolitan court on Friday rejected the bail application of senior journalist Mahesh Langa who is lodged at Sabarmati Central Jail in connection with the alleged GST fraud case.
Additional chief judicial magistrate MV Chauhan pronounced the order while rejecting the bail. The Detection of Crime Branch, which arrested Langa and others, opposed the bail stating that investigation was on.
The DCB in its written submission stated that several "secret documents" were recovered from his house which are being investigated. "If he was granted bail, he may hamper the investigation by contacting those people connected with the secret documents."
The DCB told the court that Langa "conspired" with other accused to save "income tax and GST" by colluding with proprietors of Dhruvi Enterprise. He allegedly obtained GST numbers based on fake documents and had a business transaction with Dhruvi Enterprise to the tune of Rs43.35 lakh. It said that Langa allegedly created DA Enterprise in the name of his wife to evade income tax. It further alleges that Rs20 lakh found from his home was allegedly earned by evading income tax.
Langa was arrested on October 8 along with three other co-accused in a crackdown on GST fraud. The DCB stated that "there is involvement of over 200 fraudulently created firms/entities working across the country in an organised manner to defraud the government exchequer by availing and passing of bogus Input Tax Credit (ITC)." In this case, a total of 14 persons have been arrested.
Earlier this week, Gandhinagar police registered another FIR against Langa for possessing confidential government documents related to Gujarat Maritime Board. The FIR also contains sections under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, indicating that some government officials are also involved. A police note stated that some officials of GMB may have leaked the information to Langa.
"The very sensitive document was not published in either print or electronic media, therefore, it can't be ruled out that the document was used for trade off," the note stated.