Now, Rajkot Crime Branch takes journalist Mahesh Langa into 4-day custody in GST evasion case

The EOW of the Rajkot City Crime Branch arrested him from Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Central Jail in a case pertaining to the evasion of Goods and Services Tax (GST) filed by a Superintendent of the Anti-Evasion Section of the CGST Department on November 27, said officials.
They obtained a transit remand to take him to Rajkot on Friday and he was subsequently produced before a local court on Saturday. While the EOW sought his remand for 14 days, the court saw fit to grant four days custody ending on Tuesday, said officials.

The case pertains to the alleged bogus billing between a total of 15 alleged shell companies, led by a firm named Parmar Enterprises, all having conspired to claim false Input Tax Credit (ITC), registered in Rajkot in June 2023.

Police Inspector SM Jadeja of the Special Operations Group, who is also in charge of EOW, said, “Parmar Enterprises was set up in June 2023 as a shell firm. There was a false rental agreement and on the basis of that fake bills were produced. A total of 14 other firms purchased fake bills from this firm, including DA Enterprise which is owned by Mahesh Langa. We have obtained a four day- remand of the accused.”

Notably, a total of 15 persons have been arrested till date in this case, including Langa, said police officials.

The Indian Express has learnt that bogus bills to the tune of Rs3.27 crore (Rs3,27,63,162) were allegedly generated by Parmar Enterprises, which were then purchased by 14 other firms. The false ITC claimed through these bogus bills amounts to around Rs 61.38 lakh.

Police officials said DA Enterprise had purchased 4 fake bills from Parmar Enterprises worth Rs47 lakh. The bogus ITC from these fake bills amounts to Rs8,50,788.

What are the cases against Langa?

The first case, filed on October 7, is regarding Langa’s alleged involvement in running a benami firm linked to a network of 220 shell companies allegedly involved in a nationwide GST fraud, primarily investigated by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI).
The second case, filed by Gandhinagar Police on October 22, named Langa as accused of theft and possession of confidential documents of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB).

The third case, according to the Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police Gyanender Singh Malik on October 29, was filed by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Ahmedabad City Police against the senior assistant editor of The Hindu newspaper on October 28, for cheating a businessman to the tune of Rs28.68 lakh.

The fourth case, announced by the Ahmedabad Zonal Office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 29, said it had filed a case of Money Laundering against Mahesh Langa and others, and had conducted a second set of search operations at 7 premises across Ahmedabad, Surat and Bhavnagar districts of Gujarat on Sunday (October 27), in the GST Fraud case, based on the FIR filed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch.

The case by the Rajkot Crime Branch through its Economic Offences Wing is the fifth one against Mahesh Langa.