₹250-cr bogus bill scam: Ludhiana mastermind’s wife, 2 bank officials booked

The main accused’s wife accessed his bank locker a day after his arrest and took ₹17 crore

The wife of the mastermind of the ₹250 crore bogus billing scam was booked on Sunday for taking ₹17 crore from her husband’s bank locker, a day after his arrest on November 11.

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Two bank officials were booked for allowing her access to the locker.

Those booked are Yashita Jain, Capital Small Finance Bank Limited branch manager Manpreet Singh and assistant manager Manish Verma.

The main accused, Sahil Jain, was found to be involved in bogus billing of invoices worth ₹252 crore involving input tax credit (ITC) of over ₹17 crore in respect of 14 firms created and operated by him either in his name or in the name of his family members and friends, without actual movement of any goods and causing a loss to the government exchequer.

Yashita was a partner in a number of such firms involved in issuing bogus bills and passing fake ITCs.

In his complaint, Principal Commissioner Good and Service Commisisonerate inspector Anil Dogra said that while Sahil was in jail, the evasion wing of the Commissionerate found that the bank accounts and locker of the accused at Capital Small Finance Bank Ltd, Sunder Nagar, had been operated by the accused Yashita Jain on November 12.

When the visiting departmental officers summoned the two bank officers, Manish admitted to have allowed Yashita to operate the locker on the directions of branch manager Manpreet Singh.

He also forged Sahil’s signature to indicate he had operated the locker. However, Shail was in jail at the time.

Manpreet said, “On November 12 , Yashita came to my office saying she immediately needed to operate her husband’s locker but he was out of town. Thus, I directed Manish to allow Yashita to operate the account.”

The department found that both the bank officials had violated Reserve Bank of India guidelines and sought action against them for conniving with the accused.

A case was registered under Section 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467, ( forgery of valuable security) 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating, 471 (use a fake document as genuine) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The investigating officer Chaman Singh said raids were on to nab the accused.