NEW DELHI: Noida police arrested four more people who were allegedly involved in a massive GST fraud case amounting to around Rs 10,000 crore, a police official said on Thursday.
The accused were identified as Rahul Nigam (29), Piyush Kumar Gupta (36), both residents of Shahdara in Delhi, Dilip Sharma (29) from Indralok and Rakesh Kumar (47) from Pitampura.
Till now, the police have arrested 29 people in connection with the case. The police said that so far the investigation into the multi-crore scam has revealed that the accused were preparing fake bills of around
Rs 70-80 lakh everyday.
Notably, the case pertains to thousands of bogus companies which were allegedly floated on the basis of forged Aadhaar cards, fake invoices being raised by them and input tax credit (ITC) being claimed on their behalf.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Harish Chander, during a special media briefing on Thursday, said they have found a list of 200 bogus companies used to claim tax benefits under GST, and have got Rs 3 crore of ill-gotten money frozen in eight bank accounts linked to the arrested.
“Among the bogus firms found, some had even shown import-export business with companies based abroad like Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines,” the officer said.
According to Chander, the kingpin of the gang is one named Nishant, a resident of Delhi’s Pitampura. He along with Rakesh and other associates prepared fake GST firms for their financial gain and registered their fake ownership in the names of other people.
To avoid arrest, these people ran a company inside their house in a residential area at a different location.
“By preparing the IEC iwmport export code of fake companies, mainly located abroad, the accused fraudulently got financial benefits by showing import and export through fake companies,” the official said.
The investigation and subsequent interrogation of the accused revealed that the gang was working in two teams, one preparing fake documents using fake Aadhaar card, PAN card, rent agreement, electricity bill, etc. with fake GST number, while the other bought fake firms with the GST numbers generated by the first team, claiming GST refund using the fraudulent bill.
“By availing ITC input tax credit, they defraud the government of thousands of crores,” the official added.
Bills worth Rs 70-80 lakh forged daily
The case pertains to thousands of bogus companies, allegedly floated on the basis of forged Aadhaar cards, fake invoices being raised by them and input tax credit being claimed on their behalf. Probe into the scam revealed that the accused were preparing fake bills of around `70-80 lakh everyday.
Gang was working in two teams
Interrogation of the accused revealed that the gang was working in two teams, one preparing fake documents using fake Aadhaar card, PAN card, rent agreement, electricity bill, etc. with fake GST number, while the other bought fake firms with the GST numbers, claiming GST refund with fake bills.