GST scam Court rejects bail plea of accused Jagdish Dhanani

Indore: A sessions court here on Monday rejected bail application moved by Jagdish Dhanani, who is an accused in the GST scam worth Rs 32 crore.
Meanwhile, the police remand of second accused, Mehul Khiraiya, ended on Monday. He was produced before special magistrate Nidhi Modita Pinto, who sent him to judicial remand. The next hearing in the case is on January 22.No bail plea was moved before the court on behalf of Khiraiya.
The accused Dhanani in his bail plea submitted that he had been falsely accused in the case and that offences under the GST act were bailable. The accused also submitted that there was a long time before the chargesheet will be filed by the GST authority in court and till then he should be granted bail since he was not a flight risk and was ready to comply with all directions of court.
Earlier, Dhanani’s bail plea was rejected by the magistrate court.
The GST officials argued that investigation into the matter was underway and that there was risk that the accused would influence witnesses and tamper with evidence if he was granted bail. They, through advocate Chandan Airen, also argued that the offence committed by the accused was well-planned and around 40 fake firms were traced by them during investigation.
“The amount of tax evaded by the accused was found out to be Rs 32 crore and this figure is expected to increase with further arrests of the masterminds involved in the scam. Khiraiya in his interrogation has informed the officials about further links and involvement of chartered accountants in the scam,” advocate Airen said.
Additional district and sessions judge JP Singh while rejecting the bail application observed that the accused had very cleverly hatched a criminal conspiracy and had run an organised racket to fail an entire government mechanism.