Eight people, including senior journalist Mahesh Langa, who were arrested by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) in connection with an alleged GST fraud case, have been sent to judicial custody on Friday after their police remand ended.
The GST fraud allegedly caused a loss, amounting to crores of rupees, to the government exchequer. The accused reportedly availed and passed on fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) through fake invoices. The fraud was uncovered by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and is currently under investigation by both the Gujarat Police and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
According to the FIR, the racket involved more than 220 benami (anonymous) firms, set up using forged documents. On Friday, two separate groups of accused individuals were sent to judicial custody as their police remands came to an end.
Among those remanded were four individuals arrested on 8th October: senior journalist Mahesh Langa of The Hindu, Aijaz alias Maldar, Abdulkader alias Bapu and Jyotish Magan Gondaliya, whose 10-day police remand ended on October 18. The court had also granted a five-day remand for another four accused arrested on October 13, which expired on the same day. These include Faizal Munaf Shaikh (associated with Dhruvi Enterprise), Irfan alias Padu Sattar Jethwa (owner of Dhruvi Enterprise), Jignesh Himmatlal Desai (operator of Dhruvi Enterprise’s bank account) and Paresh Pradeep Dodiya (owner of Prakash Industries).
On Friday, the accused were presented before the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at Gheekanta in Ahmedabad. Since the DCB did not request an extension of the remand, all eight were sent to judicial custody, confirmed Inspector I.N. Ghasura, the investigating officer (IO) handling the case.
During his remand, Mahesh Langa had filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court seeking to quash the 10-day remand order issued by the lower court, but he withdrew the petition during a hearing on October 14.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched its probe into the case on 17th October, conducting early morning raids at 23 locations across Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Veraval, Rajkot, Surat and Kodinar. The searches were carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), targeting M/s Dhruvi Enterprises and other related firms.
The DCB had initially registered a case for the alleged GST fraud on 7th October, following a complaint by the DGGI. The subsequent FIR, which included charges of fraud and forgery—offences that fall under the PMLA—prompted the ED to take up the investigation.
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