GST fraud case: Journalist Mahesh Langa withdraws plea from Gujarat HC challenging 10-day remand

Ahmedabad: Senior journalist Mahesh Langa on Monday withdrew his plea in the Gujarat High Court challenging the magistrate court's 10-day remand order in a Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud case against him.

When the matter came up for hearing in the court of Justice Sandeep Bhatt, Langa's counsel sought permission to withdraw the petition without specifying the reason.

The Ahmedabad crime branch arrested Langa, a senior journalist with a leading newspaper, in the fraud case on October 8. The next day, a court sent him to a 10-day police remand.

Langa had challenged the magistrate court's remand order, contending that it was passed without the application of mind.

His lawyer had submitted that the journalist's name was not mentioned in the first information report.

The city crime branch registered an FIR against several persons and entities after getting a complaint from the Central GST over an alleged scam involving shell firms set up to defraud the government through bogus input tax credits and fraudulent transactions.

Langa was arrested after the Central GST found some suspicious transactions in bogus firms floated in the name of his wife and father using forged documents.

After registration of the FIR, the crime branch and Gujarat's Economic Offences Wing raided 14 locations across the state, including in Ahmedabad, Junagadh, Surat, Kheda and Bhavnagar.

The crime branch has so far arrested eight persons in the case.

According to the crime branch, more than 200 fraudulently created firms worked across the country in an organised manner to defraud the government exchequer by availing bogus input tax credits, and forged documents and identities were used to create these firms for tax evasion.