Journalist Mahesh Langa, accused in GST fraud, withdraws remand-quashing plea

Gujarat-based journalist Mahesh Langa has withdrawn his petition challenging his 10-day police custody in the Gujarat High Court.

Last week, The Hindu journalist was arrested for his alleged involvement in a GST fraud. An FIR was also filed against multiple individuals and entities. Among them is a company reportedly owned by the journalist's family.

While Langa is not named in the FIR, his father is named. 

Also Read: What we know about the Mahesh Langa case so far

The petition was filed by Langa’s lawyer, Jal Unwala, on October 10 and heard for the first time on October 11. The special criminal application was being heard in the High Court by the bench of Justice Sandeep Bhatt who had asked Advocate Unwala to provide details of the plea to the office of the public prosecutor, and scheduled next hearing for October 14.

“The petitioner is a journalist in a very prominent newspaper and has experience of decades working with multiple newspapers as political correspondent. The petitioner challenges the remand order broadly on the grounds that the petitioner is not even remotely connected with the DA Enterprise, the firm name as the primary accused/entity in the FIR. The investigating agency has not pointed out a single instance as to how the petitioner is connected with working and affairs of such enterprise,” read the petition filed by Jal Unwala.

However, Unwala refused to comment on why the petition was being withdrawn.

“Mahesh Langa was arrested on charges of cheating, forgery, among others. A police team had raided Lang residence and recovered unaccounted cash of Rs 20 lakh, gold and papers of land deals before he was detained for questioning and later arrested. Langa, when questioned, couldn’t answer about the money or the land documents recovered from his residence. Adding to this, his family members (who are named in the FIR for owing one of the benami firm) have named him as the brain behind firm’s functioning as he used to take all decisions. Besides, we have evidence of a money trail based on which we arrested him,” read the remand petition by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch on basis on which a Magistrate Court granted 10 days police remand for Langa.

Noticeably, as per Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code, (Cr.PC) a person can be arrested by an investigating agency without being named in the FIR, if agency has reasonable complaints or credible information against the person or the agency has the reasons to believe such person has committed the said offence and is satisfied that arrest is necessary to prevent further commission of offence or for proper investigation. A trial court can summon a person as an accused if they appear guilty of an offense, even if they are not named in the FIR. In such cases, the person can also seek bail under Section 167(2) of the CrPC.

What Ahmedabad Crime Branch says

“13 firms and their proprietors were named as accused wherein the other shell companies had allegedly availed of fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) that had been illegally passed on to them through bogus billing by Dhruvi Enterprise, the firm/entity which is the main accused. The FIR names 13 firms or entities as accused in the case. The offence was committed between February 1, 2023 and May 1, 2023. The accused were booked under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable securities), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (illegal use of forged document), 474 (possession of forged document and intent to use it), and 120b (party to a criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” said Ajit Rajian, Ahmedabad Crime Branch DCP.

According to the FIR, Dhruvi Enterprise, a Rajkot-based firm in which Langa’s wife is a director, obtained GST registration using forged documents.

The firm allegedly indulged in receipt and transfer of bogus Input Tax Credit (ITC) of GST to unscrupulous recipients by issuance of fake invoices without the supply of underlying goods.

Noticeably, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch began its probe soon after Himanshu Joshi, an intelligence officer at DGGI, Ahmedabad zonal unit, wrote a letter to the state agency regarding the case.

“The investigation began after the Ahmedabad zonal unit of DGGI uncovered a major bogus billing scam involving a firm named Dhruvi Enterprise which had fraudulently obtained GST registration using a forged rent agreement in March 2023. This registration was later cancelled suo motu by the tax department in September 2023. This raised further suspicions about the firm’s activities. As DGGI officials analysed the data linked to Dhruvi Enterprise, the firm was found to be involved in issuing fake invoices without any actual supply of goods. This is a known modus operandi employed by fraudsters. Using these fake invoices, the company illegally transferred ITC to and claimed ITC from several firms/entities. Dhruvi Enterprise availed of ITC from Solanki Enterprises, which in turn availed of ITC from Nemis Traders, both of whose GST registrations have been cancelled,” read the letter by Himanshu Joshi.

“On further probing the email IDs, PAN cards and mobile numbers linked with these three shell companies, investigators reportedly found involvement of a total of 220 fraudulently created firms/entities working across the country,” the complaint read.