Bail Denied to CA: Court denies Bail to Chartered Accountant accused of Preparing Forged Certificates

The Patiala House Court in the matter of CGST Vs. Sunil Mehlawat denies Bail to Chartered Accountant accused of Preparing Forged Certificates which lead to GST Fraud worth Rs.7,60,89,626/-.

The learned counsels argued that the applicant/accused has been practicing as C.A. since past 6 years and has been falsely implicated with the allegations that UDIN number, ID and password of the applicant has been misused by co-accused Gaurav Dhir. It is further averred that even as per the allegations in the complaint, the applicant is not accused of misappropriation of a single rupee. It is further argued that the case of the prosecution is that the applicant was unaware of submission of the request by co-accused Gaurav Dhir in the GST department and even from perusal of the statement, the role as described by the prosecution, no offence under Section 132 (b), (c), (d) of GST is made out against the applicant/accused and further nothing is to be recovered from the applicant/accused. With these submissions it is prayed that applicant/accused may be granted concession of bail.

The Coram found out that, “the applicant/accused had given his UDIN login ID and Password to one of his friend namely Gaurav Dhir (co-accused) a few months ago and he had shared his OTP with him on multiple occasions. He further disclosed that co-accused had requested him that he required the UDIN certificate for some bank transactions regarding turnover certificate, projected provisional balance sheet, net worth certificate, stock statement and VISA certificate etc. and therefore he shared his ID password of UDIN and OTP with his friend i.e. the coaccused namely Gaurav Dhir. He further disclosed that on 16.05.2022, coaccused Garuav Dhir informed him that he had generated some UDIN (as mentioned in the instant application) for CA certificate for filing certain refund claims pertaining to firms which were later on found to be fraud/fake.

He has actively participated in the preparation of forged certificates for bogus/nonexistent companies to claim a GST refund and thereby causing loss to the public exchequer.”

The department argued that the applicant was involved in inflicting a loss to the government treasury in the amount of Rs. 7,60,89,626 and had committed an economic violation that harmed the country’s economy.

The Bench ruled out that, “in light of the above discussion and considering the seriousness and nature of the offence allegedly committed by the applicant/accused, this Court is not inclined to grant concession of bail to applicant/accused Sunil Mehlawat. Accordingly, the instant bail application moved by applicant/accused Sunil Mehlawat stands dismissed. Now to come up on 02.06.2022 the date and purpose already fixed.”

The Judgment was made by Hon’ble Justice Manoj Kumar Rana.

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