Fraudulent issuance of tax invoices under GST —Arrest of persons for generating and selling of fake tax invoices to various entities without supplying the underlying goods or services—Grant of Bail—Reasons to believe—In this case, Based on such reasonable belief, the Additional Director General directed the officers concerned to arrest the petitioners in terms of the provisions stipulated under Section 69 of the said Act and they were arrested on 12.05.2018.
Held that— ‘Reasonable belief’ or reason to believe as a standard to arrest requires that arresting officer subjectively believe that the suspect has committed the offence and that objectively reasonable person would reach the same conclusion. Reasonable grounds do not require as much evidence as a prima facie case but do require that thing believed to be more likely than not.
It is settled position of law that grant of bail is a rule and rejection of bail is an exception. Maximum punishment provided in the Act is for a term of five years. The accused persons were arrested on 12.5.2018 and investigation has to be concluded within 60 days from the date of arrest as per provision of Section 167(2) of Cr.P.C.
While granting bail, the Court has to keep in mind the nature of the accusations, the nature of evidence in support thereof the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character of the accused, reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being tampered with, the larger interest of the public/ State and others similar consideration are requied to be taken into consideration.
Bail granted subject to deposit of Rs. 39 crore to the Government Exchequer.