Section 132 of the CGST Act, 2017 — Bail — The petitioner prayed for bail for the offences punishable under section 132 (1)(b)(c) and (1) of the Act. It is alleged that this Petitioner in collusion with others had been managing in showing the receipt of purchase invoices in the name of fake firms without physical receipt of goods and issuing sale invoices without onward physical movement of the goods and thereby has wrongfully availed and passed on bogus ITC on the strength of those fake invoices in defrauding the State exchequer. The counsel for the Petitioner submitted that the Petitioner has made all genuine sale and purchase of goods using genuine GSTN and has paid the GST. Entire prosecution case is based on documentary evidence which by now have already been seized when the Petitioner has remained in custody for about five months. So the scope on the part of the Petitioner to tamper with any such evidence stands foreclosed. The respondent counsel submitted that the prayer for grant of bail to the Petitioner having earlier been rejected and there is no change in the circumstances for reconsideration of the said prayer. The court observed that a large number of documents have also been seized and all these are in custody of the complainant to which the Petitioner is having no more the access. The complaint having already been filed, the Petitioner has been in custody since 28.6.2021. There is hardly any scope for him to flee away from justice. About five months have passed since the detention of the Petitioner in custody and thus those stages of the investigation appear to be over.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court directed that the Petitioner be released on bail subject to certain conditions.