Journalist, other accused sent to 10 days police custody in GST input credit scam case

Ahmedabad: A magistrate’s court on Wednesday remanded four accused in a GST input tax credit scam case to 10 days of police custody.

The accused include Maheshdan Langa, also known as Mahesh Langa, a journalist covering Gujarat for The Hindu newspaper. The other accused are Surat-based Jyotish Gondaliya, Aejaz Maldar, and Abdul Kadar Qadri, also known as Bapu Kadri.

All four were brought to the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate’s court, where the Ahmedabad city crime branch sought their custody for questioning regarding the formation of bogus companies, involvement of others, purchases and financial transactions through these fake firms, and a Rs. 5 crore transaction for obtaining a GST number.

On Monday, the city crime branch filed an FIR against 13 companies following a complaint from the Ahmedabad zonal unit of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI). The complaint alleged a scam involving the creation of fake firms to fraudulently claim input tax credit (ITC) through bogus transactions. The investigation revealed that Dhruvi Enterprise issued fake invoices to 12 companies, including DA Enterprises, which was registered under Mahesh Langa’s cousin, Manoj Langa, and Vinu Patel. Among the other firms linked to Dhruvi Enterprise in the alleged scam is Aryan Associates, run by Ajay Barad, son of BJP MLA Bhagwanbhai Barad, along with Vijaykumar and Ramesh Barad.

In its remand application, the crime branch cited 19 reasons for seeking full custody of the accused, including Mahesh Langa’s reputation as a journalist. The application claimed Langa concealed his involvement and used his wife and cousin’s names to create DA Enterprise, leveraging his influence to secure large construction contracts for financial gain. Additionally, Rs 20 lakh in unexplained cash was found at Langa’s residence, suspected to have been obtained through fraudulent activities. While the accused opposed the remand, arguing political vendetta due to Langa’s profession, the court concluded that their interrogation was necessary, given the significant financial losses to the government.

The court in its order said, “By looking into the case diary and FIR, it prima facie appears that the accused played an important role in this criminal act. It could be believed that only they had the knowledge about the role they played in this. It appears that because of the action of the accused, the country suffered a financial loss of crores of rupees. In these circumstances, it appears that the accused persons’ interrogation is necessary on the grounds mentioned in the remand application. DeshGujarat