Gujarat GST fraud case: Five accused sent to four-day police custody

However, the court granted four days of custody till October 27 of Adil Kadar Khokhar (30), Kadar alias Navdi Rafiqbhai Khokhar (32), Akil Anubhai Pathan (24), Shahrukh Rafiqbhai Rangrej (30), and Sarfaraz Mustufa Chauhan (40). These five accused on Tuesday were the latest to be arrested in the GST fraud case that was busted by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), and is under investigation by the Crime Branch as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

This has taken the total number of accused arrested in this case, including senior journalist Mahesh Langa, to 13. More arrests in this case are likely this week, said officials.

Maritime Board case

Meanwhile, Gandhinagar Police, which is investigating another case related to the GST fraud case — where journalist Langa, senior assistant editor at The Hindu, is an accused — are attempting to find out how Langa got his hands on the alleged classified documents from the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB).

Langa is in judicial custody at the Sabarmati Central Jail since his remand with the Ahmedabad Crime Branch ended October 18.Earlier, on October 22, Langa had been booked under Section-7 police station under BNS sections 316(5) (criminal breach of trust), 303(2) (theft), 306 (theft by an employee from employer), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy).

He was also booked under sections 7(a) (taking undue advantage to influence public servant through corruption or illegal means), 8(1)(i) (whoever accepts or obtains or attempts to obtain from another person for himself or for any other person any undue advantage as a motive or reward to induce a public servant, by corrupt or illegal means), 12 (abetment of offence), 13(1)(a) (public servant commits offence of criminal misconduct), and 13(2) (punishment of public servant for criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

While officials told The Indian Express that Langa remains the sole accused in this case at the moment, they suspect that someone at the GMB office had leaked classified documents to Langa.

Investigators said the material in the documents had not been published in any print or electronic media so they suspect there could have been ulterior motives. Police are investigating the source of the leak of documents, whether they were sold to Langa and whether he sought to make a profit from the documents.

Gandhinagar SP Ravi Teja Vasamsetty told The Indian Express, “We are currently investigating the source of the leak and why the documents were leaked. We have not sought to arrest Langa in this case as yet.”