Gujarat High Court passed a stricture against the officers of the Director General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) in the case pertaining to allegedly detaining a person for 33 hours and forcing him to pay tax of Rs 9 crore.

The owner of Bharat Chemicals had filed the plea against the central government sleuths and state GST department after his release from detention.

The HC said, “The facts of this case are very gross and shocking. Serious allegations have been levelled against the Additional Director, DGGI and Senior Intelligence Officer, DGGI respectively. The matter needs to be looked into urgently. The mode and manner in which the officers are alleged to have coerced and pressurised the writ applicant to transfer an amount of almost Rs 9 crore to the account of the department is shocking.”

No wonder Gujarat has highest GST collection, HC observes

The court also said, “It is brought to our notice that the writ applicant was summoned and under the guise of interrogation kept under detention for almost a period of 33 hours. No wonder, the State of Gujarat has topped the list of States with the highest collection of tax under the GST Act in the country for the year 2020-21.”

The court issued notices to the government department through email and scheduled further hearing on February 16. The case was filed by Kanubhai Patel, a proprietor of Bharat Acid and Chemicals based in Valsad district, as he was interrogated and allegedly subjected to coercion by the department over apprehension about GST evasion by his firm last month.

Source: Ahmedabad Mirror