HC dismisses bail plea of 3 excise officials, 2 others

Court says custodial interrogation of petitioners required to unearth nexus between them and intermediaries

THE TAX EVASION WAS COMMITTED THROUGH TRANSPORTING GOODS OF VARIOUS TRADERS INTO AND OUT OF PUNJAB PAYING LESS OR NO TAX AT ALL

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has dismissed bail plea of five persons, including three excise and taxation department officials, in a multi-crore tax evasion case of Punjab.

The high court bench of justice Jaishree Thakur, while dismissing the pleas, observed that no doubt the personal liberty of the petitioners is at stake, but in the instant case the custodial interrogation would be required to unearth the nexus between them and the intermediaries.

“In the case in hand, there has to be a deviation from normal rule of bail rather than jail, since the allegations and prima facie investigation revealed that there was evasion of tax at a large-scale and officials were being paid bribes on a monthly basis,” the bench observed.

It added that the investigation is at a very nascent stage and petitioners are also persons of influence and would be in a position to scuttle a proper investigation.

The bails were of ETOs, Ved Parkash Jakhar, Piara Singh and Tarlok Chand and two others Harmeet Singh and Yadwinder Singh.

The FIR in question was registered on August 21, 2020 by vigilance bureau in which 12 officials of the excise and taxation department and four private persons were booked.

Allegations were that in connivance with private transporters, these officials caused huge losses to the state exchequer. Tax evasion was committed through transporting goods of various traders into and out of Punjab paying less or no tax at all.

The senior deputy advocate general, Gaurav Garg Dhuriwala had told court that there is sufficient evidence available with the state to prosecute them including mobile phone conversations between them among other evidence.

Bail pleas of other accused are still pending.