Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has declared the arrest of Sales Tax Officer Amit Lalge, who was arrested for allegedly giving fraudulent tax refunds totaling Rs175 crores to 16 ineligible companies between August 2021 and March 2022, as “illegal and in gross violation of fundamental rights.”
A bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande noted that the police failed to inform Lalge of the “grounds of arrest,” violating Article 22(1) [Any person who is in custody has to be informed as to why he has been arrested] of the Constitution and Section 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) [a person who is arrested without a warrant must be informed of the grounds for arrest, full details of the offense, and right to bail].
Lalge was arrested on June 25, 2024, from his office without being provided an arrest memo or the reasons for his detention. He was produced before a sessions court hours later, remanded to police custody, and subsequently sent to judicial custody at Taloja Jail.
The arrest was based on allegations that, as a Sales Tax Officer, Lalge sanctioned fraudulent tax refunds totaling Rs175 crores to 16 ineligible companies between August 2021 and March 2022.
Lalge’s Advocate Mohan Tekavde argued that Lalge had cooperated with the investigation by appearing multiple times before the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and explaining the GST refund process.
Despite this, he was arrested without proper communication of the charges, violating Article 22(1) and Section 50 of the CrPC, which mandate that an accused must be informed of the reasons for their arrest.
State’s advocate MM Deshmukh contended that Lalge was aware of the allegations through prior inquiries and that the arrest memo, signed by Lalge, satisfied the procedural requirements.
However, the court noted that merely signing an arrest form does not substitute for the legal obligation to communicate the grounds of arrest. The Additional Sessions Judge, who granted remand, also failed to verify whether this requirement was met, instead relying solely on the FIR and the investigating officer’s submission, the court added.
“From the order passed on remand application it is evident that, no such grounds of arrest were communicated to the petitioner,” the court said.
Declaring Lalge’s arrest and subsequent remand orders null and void, the court ruled that his fundamental rights under Articles 21 and 22 had been violated. It ordered his release on bail, stating that the charge sheet had already been filed, rendering his continued custody unwarranted.
