Page 193 - GSTL_2nd April 2020_Vol 35_Part 1

2020 ] RAJESH v. STATE OF HARYANA 95
possession. The car in question was found to be registered in the name of Vipul
Jindal, who happens to be ‘jija’ (brother-in-law) of Rajesh Mittal. During the
course of investigation, the police was able to unearth the entire racket of evasion
of GST. It was found that Rajesh Mittal was the kingpin who issued bogus bills
purported to have been issued by one M/s. Lalit Trading Company, which was
in fact out of business. Such bogus bills were issued in favour of 18 firms in re-
spect of bogus transaction of sale of yarn. The said 18 firms had been got incor-
porated/registered by associating persons of the status of rickshaw pullers etc.
and were not actually businessmen.
5. It was further found that in the bills issued by M/s. Lalit Trading
Company in favour of the said 18 bogus firms (non-functional firms), GST was
also shown to have been charged.
6. During investigation, it further surfaced that the said 18 non-
functional firms further issued bills in favour of 421 different industries based in
Panipat and the said industries in Panipat in order to reflect expenditure in re-
spect of their manufacturing processes and in order to lend credibility to their so
called purchase of yarn made banking transactions in favour of said 18 firms and
the amount so transferred through banking transactions used to be withdrawn
from the bank accounts of the said firms and given back to those industries while
retaining some percentage. Thus, in this manner, the industries of Panipat with-
out actually incurring expenditure, used to reflect expenditure in their accounts
and thus, also used to evade payment of a substantial amount of GST on the
premises that the initial supplier i.e. M/s. Lalit Trading Company had already
charged the GST. The mastermind of this entire racket was found to be Rajesh
Mittal who used the name of the firm M/s. Lalit Trading Company for the issu-
ance of bogus bills in favour of 18 firms created and registered by him with the
help of some ordinary persons (non-businessmen) for the purpose of showing
transactions and the said 18 firms further reflected transactions with 421 indus-
tries of Panipat. The loss of revenue in terms of GST was assessed at about 80
crores.
7. Learned Counsel for the petitioners have submitted that they have
falsely been implicated in the present case and that there is no convincing evi-
dence to show that the petitioner Rajesh Mittal was indeed the kingpin or the
brain behind the entire scam or that he had associated the other accused includ-
ing Manish and Inder Pratap Singh by getting their firms registered with the help
of Satnarain so as to cause loss to the State revenue.
8. Learned Counsel for the petitioner - Satnarain has submitted that he
is an Advocate by profession and that his services had been hired by Rajesh Mit-
tal for the purpose of getting some firms registered and he had rendered profes-
sional consultancy and assistance in the matter of incorporation/registration of
firms and had charged some nominal professional fee and thus cannot be said to
be part and parcel of the alleged scam of evasion of GST.
9. The Learned Counsel for the petitioners have further submitted that
it is a case of double jeopardy wherein the petitioners are also being prosecuted
under Section 122 of GST Act wherein they have already been granted bail.
10. Opposing the petition, Learned State Counsel has submitted that
although the present case is a case based on secret information but the factum of
recovery of bogus stamps, rubber stamps, cheque books and laptop containing
incriminating data clearly points towards the guilt of the accused. The Learned

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