Lucknow: The Noida Police has arrested three more persons in connection with a multicrore GST scam which has resulted in loss of revenue to the government, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 18, officials said. The scam pertains to thousands of bogus companies being floated on the basis of forged Aadhar cards, fake invoices being raised by them and input tax credit (ITC) being claimed on
their behalf, according to the police.
“The Sector 20 police station here is investigating the GST fraud. On Sunday, the police arrested three persons who were wanted in this case. The trio has been identified as Amit alias Monty (42), Ajay alias Mintu (41) and Mahesh (20). They all were involved in fake invoicing,” Additional DCP (Noida) Shakti Mohan Avasthy said.
According to police, the trio is part of a larger syndicate whose 15 members have been arrested earlier. These three accused lived in Sirsa, Haryana and worked for the last five years in the gang.
Their work involved collecting and transferring money received from fake GST Bills and they had transactions in entire NCR and parts of Haryana, police said.
Last month the Noida Police busted a gang involved in what is now known as the “GST Scam” wherein around 3,077 bogus companies were unearthed on whose behalf ITC was being claimed. Initial police investigations showed transactions of around Rs 8,500 crore from these bogus firms, according to senior officials.
The police said they have recovered seven mobile phones with fraudulently procured SIM cards, three Aadhar cards, six tax invoice documents, and impounded two cars from the trio on Sunday.
The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468 and 471 (all related to forgery), 120 B (party to criminal conspiracy) and sent to jail, police added.
Investigation in the case was shared with GST authorities, who have frozen input tax credit claims
worth Rs 2,645 crore since the fraud was unearthed, according to Awasthy. “This step aims to prevent further misuse of the fraudulent activities and ensure recovery of ill-gotten gains. Bank accounts of 1,900+ companies with a balance of Rs 7 crore have also been frozen,” Avasthy further said.
Apart from this, a KYC (know your customer) request has been sent to telecom service providers.
“This request is related to the issuance of over 1,700 SIM cards by a vendor who is one of the accused in the case. We aim to verify the identities associated with these SIM cards and gather additional evidence,” said assistant commissioner of police Rajneesh Verma. After the arrests on Monday, cops said they have recovered seven mobile phones with SIM cards, three Aadhaar cards, six ITC documents, and seized
two cars. The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468 and 471 (all related to forgery), and 120B (party to criminal conspiracy)
