1. The petitioner seeks grant of regular bail in a case registered vide FIR No. 30 dated 13.3.2021 under Sections 406, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471/120-B IPC at Police Station Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) Ludhiana, District Ludhiana.

2. The FIR was registered at the instance of Principal Commissioner, Goods and Services Tax Commissionerate, Ludhiana wherein it is alleged that three firms namely M/s La Mode Fashions, M/s Decent Fashions and M/s Murari Enterprises indulged in preparing fake invoices and availed Input Tax Credit (ITC) and its monetization through refunds. Accordingly, the office of the complainant conducted an investigation and found that Tarun Kumar (petitioner), Ankur Garg- Chartered Accountant, Rakesh Arora and Partners of the firms i.e. Rajesh Kumar, Mrs. Shreya Aggarwal and Rakesh Kumar who are partners of M/s La Mode Fashions, M/s Decent Fashions and M/s Murari Enterprises, conspired with each other for committing the fraud. It was alleged that Tarun Kumar (petitioner) in connivance with his said co-accused, prepared fake invoices of the said firm amounting to ₹ 158 crores and fradulently availed Input Tax Credit of ₹ 21.60 crores from the Govt. It was further revealed that Tarun Kumar (petitioner) was a Computer Operator and he in connivance with his co-accused, forged the identity of the persons; forged PAN Cards, Aadhar Cards etc. in order to create fake firms.

3. It is further the case of prosecution that dummy identity of co-accused Rajesh Kumar was prepared by Tarun Kumar (petitioner) as fake Ajay Gupta son of Naresh Gupta and fake PAN Card and Aadhaar Card of fake Ajay Gupta was prepared and then Rajesh Kumar impersonated as Ajay Gupta. Similarly fake identity of one Shreya was created by the petitioner in the name of Shreya Aggarwal C/o Atul Kumar, Advocate and fake Aadhaar Card in the name of Shreya Aggarwal containing fake address was prepared and thereafter submitted those fake documents with the department for obtaining GST Registration. It was further revealed that Rakesh Arora in connivance with Ankur Garg- Chartered Accountant played an active role in creating the fake firms and forging fake identities, getting those fake firms registered with the GST Department, filing fake GST returns and availing Input Tax Credit of ₹ 21.60 crores from the government.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that lodging of the present FIR is an absolute misuse of process of law and also constitutes double jeopardy inasmuch as a verbatim same complaint has already been filed by the Inspector (Preventive) CGST Commissionerate, Ludhiana in which the petitioner was granted bail vide order dated 18.5.2021 passed by the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana (Annexure P-1). It has been submitted that the petitioner remained in custody for about 6 months in the aforesaid complaint and after grant of bail, the present FIR was lodged on absolutely identical allegations in which he has been in custody now since the last about 8 months. The learned counsel has further submitted that in any case he cannot be said to be a beneficiary of the alleged refund of ₹ 21.60 crores availed as Input Tax Credit and was not part of the alleged scam. It has been submitted that he had been running a cyber cafe and had been extending services of internet connectivity, photocopying, scanning, printing etc. to all its customers and was not expected to make enquiry from each and every customer pertaining to the documents sought to be photocopied, scanned etc.

5. Opposing the petition, the learned State counsel has submitted that the petitioner was part and parcel of the larger conspiracy and that it was only with his active participation that the entire fraud could be committed as he had been making forged identities of PAN card, Aadhar Cards for the accused and other persons involved. The learned State counsel has, however, not disputed that complaint pertaining to similar allegations is also pending against the petitioner. He has, however, submitted that a complaint under provisions of CGST and an FIR pertaining to offences under Sections 406, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471/120-B IPC can continue simultaneously though the forgery etc. may be part of the larger scam of refund of Input Tax Credit. The learned State counsel has, however, informed that apart from the present case and the complaint under GST, the petitioner is not involved in any other case and the petitioner has been behind bars since the last about 8 months in the present case.

6. I have considered rival submissions addressed before this Court.

7. It may be debatable as to whether the role of the petitioner is confined to preparing forged documents at the instance of the co-accused or as to whether he was part and parcel of the larger conspiracy pursuant to which a loss of ₹ 21.60 crores was caused to the government on account of availing Input Tax Credit on the basis of forged documents. Without commenting any further on the merits of the case and while noticing that the petitioner has been behind bars since the last about 8 months and otherwise has a clean record, the petition is accepted and the petitioner is ordered to be released on regular bail on his furnishing bail bonds/surety bonds to the satisfaction of learned trial Court/Chief Judicial Magistrate/Duty Magistrate concerned.