Ahmedabad, Nov 18 (IANS) A court here has denied bail to journalist Mahesh Langa in a GST fraud case, observing that the offence alleged against him is serious and the offence being an economic one, affects the economy of the nation.

Additional Sessions Judge Hemangkumar Girishkumar Pandya said the applicant has fraudulently obtained GST credit of Rs 6,61,416 and is not entitled to bail.

“Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offence of having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds needs to be viewed seriously,” the judge added.

The court said economic offences have serious repercussions on the development of the country as a whole and in the last few years, the country has been seeing an alarming rise in white-collar crimes which has affected the fibre of the country's economic structure.

Earlier on October 30, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate had turned down the journalist’s bail plea, observing there was prima facie evidence of his active involvement in the conspiracy to cheat the government as well as the possibility of his tampering with evidence if released.

Langa has been in custody since October due to an alleged goods and services tax scam, with an FIR registered on October 7 by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch based on a complaint from the Central GST. A second FIR was filed against him in Gandhinagar on October 23, following the alleged recovery of documents related to the Gujarat Maritime Board.

According to the Director General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), the October 7 FIR also names shell company, Dhruvi Enterprises, and 12 other companies associated with it.

As per details of the facts which have been uncovered in the investigation by the Ahmedabad Police so far, the companies had used such forged bills for the purpose of cheating the government exchequer by falsely claiming input tax credits in order to evade GST dues. As per the report of DGGI, similar credentials such as mobile numbers, PAN cards, etc, were used to make another 220 suspected shell companies.

Searches were carried out at 19 places across the state in the districts of Bhavnagar, Surat, Junagadh, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, etc.

"So far, we have seized 29 computers, 38 mobiles, seven laptops and several documents and have sent them for forensic analysis. Further investigation is ongoing," the Ahmedabad Police said.