Mumbai: The Bombay high court has allowed bail to a chartered accountant (CA) who was arrested in a Rs 286 crore fraud. The CA was accused of facilitating and abetting spurious transactions through a company’s forged documents.
He and company owners were arrested after a former employee of the company brought it to police’s notice. As the chargesheet was not filed, the CA was not allowed bail by the lower courts as well as the HC.
The CA’s counsel argued that as the chargesheet was filed there was no need for the CA’s custody, hence the court allowed him bail.
The bail application was heard by a Justice A S Gadkari wherein the applicant Rajesh Agarwal’s counsel Sujoy Kantawala informed the court that Agarwal and others had been arrested on December 16, 2016 based on the complaint of an employee Ravikumar Jaiswal.
Jaiswal was employed with Gupta who had committed the alleged fraud of floating several companies in connivance with the CA by using Jaiswal’s documents to carry out activities in the name of the new companies. It was only after receiving several summons and notices from the Income Tax and Customs department Jaiswal quit his job.
It was claimed that the applicant and the co-accused to claim TDS and other tax benefits fabricated tax receipts, however, Mr Kantawala told the HC that all taxes were duly paid.
Mr Kantawala said that the chargesheet contained the same. “Hence, there is no need for the Agarwal to be kept in judicial custody.”
After hearing the contentions the bench said, “After taking into consideration the facts, no purpose will be served by further incarceration of the applicant. In view thereof, the applicant can be released on bail.”
