Ahmedabad: The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate here rejected bail plea of The Hindu’s editorial level journalist Mahesh Langa in its order dated October 25.

Maheshdan Prabhudan Langa who is an accused under IPC sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 474 and 120(b) in the case filed in the Detection of Crime Branch of Ahmedabad Police through his advocate told court that he has been wrongly framed in this case and he is innocent. He has been arrested on the basis of revealation of his name in the case in the statement recorded under CRPC section 164. The first information report(FIR) doesn’t mention his name. He has caused no losses to the government by taking tax credit. He is ready to pay the sum of input tax credit he received in the court. There’s no evidence against him. There’s no offense made under section 467, 468, 471 and 474. The complainant has filed complaint after a gap of 17 months. Police claim they seized Rs. 20 lakh cash but in seizer memo dated 7 October, no such sum is mentioned and the claim appears dubious. All recoveries are completed and the probe is over. Now the matter is in court. The accused is Editor of a news paper and therefore he is not a person who would escape. He would appear in the court during trial. The offense is such that the court can grant bail. The accused is ready to follow all conditions.

The special APP on the other hand told the court that the offense was committed prima facie and the accused can face 10 years to life term imprisonment as per the provisions of law. The investigation is ongoing. The accused Maheshdan Prabhudan Langa along with co-accused entered into criminal conspracy and in order to save income tax and GST, he did transaction of Rs. 43,35,949 with Dhruvi Enterprises and got bogus crdit and caused crores of Rupees of losses to the national exchequers. Though he is a prestigious journalist, he received bogus duplicate bills of Dhruvi Enterprise for his financial gains and committed tax chori. Rs. 20 lakh cash was found from his house during search. If he is released on bail, he would surely temper the evidences. And therefore the bail plea should be rejected.

The court in its order observed that the accused has caused crores of Rupees of loss to the nation. He made his wife Kavitaben Langa as partner in DA Enterprise company and run it himself. He jointly with other co-accused did transaction with bogus company Dhruvi Enterprise. Rs. 20 lakh seizure is mentioned in Panchnama. During search at his home, some secret documents were also found and that are under probe. The complaint has been filed by Himanshu Joshi, a senior intelligence officer of DGGI Ahmedabad unit. It is mentioned in the FIR that – “This analysis of data of supplier firmes of 12 recipient firms of M/s Dhruvi Enterprise suggested further availment of suspicious inward ITC by these 12 recipient firms from other active GST registrations. It was also revealed that these 12 recipient firms of M/s Dhruvi Enterprise had also availed ITC from cancelled firms after their cancellation as well”. The accused appears to have played active role in the crime as per the details in case papers. The probe is ongoing. And the accused may temper with evidences if released on bail.

It’s worth noting that Mahesh Langa is also booked in other complaint filed by the official of the Gujarat Maritime Board in Gandhinagar. However his arrest is not made yet in this case. Langa after 10 days remand was sent to Sabarmati jail under judiicial custody. DeshGujarat