A34-year-old mastermind from Chennai was arrested from Bengaluru airport who was allegedly involved in fake input tax credit racket case which caused the government a loss of about ₹176 crore. He floated fictitious companies in the names of poor people and raised fake invoices.
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How did they do it?
Officials from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (Chennai Zonal Unit) said the Chennai resident and his accomplices acquired Aadhaar and PAN details of poor people by promising them bank loans and then floated many fictitious companies in their names.
The Chennai unit of GST intelligence busted the racket which involved 59 companies passing on Input Tax Credit worth ₹175.88 crore for a taxable value of ₹973.64 crore, a report by India Today has stated.
Earlier on 22 June, his accomplice was arrested from Perambur. With the information provided by him during the interrogation, the mastermind was arrested the very next day, a report by NDTV stated.
Modus operandi
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Officials said the fraudsters were very careful and used remote access software, foreign SIM cards and exclusive phones to perpetrate the fraud. The PAN and Aadhar credentials of a person from the lower income group was allegedly used to create fictitious companies in their names for availing loans.
The intelligence unit, however, used IP address tracking, analysis of cryptic WhatsApp chats, and conducted simultaneous searches at multiple locations to nab them. The unit said 25 bank accounts have been frozen, 20 GST registrations have been cancelled and mobile phones, modems, laptops and SIM cards have been seized.
Similar case
Earlier, on 29 May, an owner of a private firm and another person were arrested in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore for allegedly using fake bills to avail input tax credit to the tune of more than ₹12 crore under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), an official from the Central GST Commissionerate had said.
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The firm involved in the purchase and sale of food grains, allegedly furnished fake bills and availed input tax credit of more than ₹12 crore, the official told PTI. The co-accused allegedly provided fake bills of bogus firms to the company owner through a Gujarat-based broker, he had said.
