E-Paper
Three held for GST fraud in Chandigarh
The three accused, identified as Jitender Singh Bhalla alias Vicky, 39, of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajeev Poonga, 55, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, and Pushp Behal, 49, of PGI Society, Sector 49, are allegedly involved in a GST fraud — executed by availing input credit based on fake invoices wherein they cheated the government of ₹5 crore
Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) arrested three men on Friday in relation with an alleged goods and services tax (GST) fraud. Police officials said they uncovered transactions of ₹5 crore made by a shell companies as identified by the fake invoices.
The accused, identified as Jitender Singh Bhalla alias Vicky, 39, of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajeev Poonga, 55, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, and Pushp Behal, 49, of PGI Society, Sector 49, are allegedly involved in a GST fraud — executed by availing input credit based on fake invoices wherein they cheated the government of ₹5 crore.
A case, under Sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (all forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), had earlier been registered at the Sector 17 police station on December 13, 2019, following the complaint of Deepa Chaudhary ETO, the then proper officer, ward no. 9, excise and taxation department, Sector 17, against Rajeev Poonga, proprietor of Vinita Enterprises, Dhanas, Chandigarh.
The complainant had alleged that proprietor Rajeev, in connivance with other associates, obtained a registration under various GST Acts. As per registration application applied on the GST portal, the main business of the firm was supplying scrap.
The excise and taxation inspector, however, submitted a report in January 2019 that there was no business activity conducted at the business premises rather there was a dental clinic namely Dr. Urmila Arora and Rajiv Kumar Nandini Dental Clinic running at the place of business.
During the period of registration from July 2018, the accused intentionally generated bogus invoices of sales and purchased to avail GST benefits.
During further investigation, it was found that accused Pushp, who was running a dhaba at Sector 40 took the documents of Rajeev and misused the same. He stated that Jatinder is the master mind of the scam. He had also opened a firm namely SAI Enterprises at Jagadhri, Yamunanagar through Pushp, against which a case is also registered.
Speaking about their modus operandi, the police said the accused Jatinder was already in the scrap dealing business and advised and guided Rajeev and Pusp during the operations.
