Noida: Two ‘masterminds’ arrested in ₹10,000-crore GST fraud case
The two suspects are multimillionaires, owning metal and scrap factories. Over the last three years, they have caused huge loss to the government by availing of ITCs fraudulently
With the arrest of two Haryana-based businessmen, the Noida Police on Wednesday evening claimed to have nabbed the “masterminds” of the ₹10,000 crore GST [good and services tax] fraud case, which came to fore in June last year, senior police officers said.
According to Shakti Avasthy, deputy commissioner of police (crime), the two suspects had claimed over ₹26 crore in input tax credit (ITC) from the government fraudulently, which has been seized by the police from their bank accounts.
On June 1 last year, the Noida police busted a gang suspected of orchestrating the multi-crore fraud. According to police, the gang would register thousands of bogus companies under stolen or fake identities and use them to generate e-way bills and obtain input tax credit (ITC) from the government.
Avasthy, who is leading the investigation in the case, said the two suspects have been identified as Ajay Sharma (28) and Sanjay Jindal (38), both residents of Sonipat, and were arrested on Wednesday from their respective residences.
“The two suspects are multimillionaires, owning metal and scrap factories. Over the last three years, they have caused huge loss to the government by availing of ITCs fraudulently. These businessmen, in order set-off their tax liability, used to claim ITC through bills in the name of bogus firms, which do not exist and were created only for this scam. The two were the end claimants of the input tax credit and had so far caused a loss of over ₹26 crore to the exchequer,” Avasthy said, adding that police have so far arrested 32 suspects in connection with the case.
Jindal is the owner and director of a Sonepat-registered firm called M/s Brownie Metal and Alloys Pvt Ltd which had taken bills from 20 shell firms and claimed a credit of ₹17 crore, he added.
“Sharma, the owner and director of Sonepat-based M/s Crystal Industries, claimed bills from six shell firms and claimed ITC worth over ₹8.5 crore. Earlier this month, the Noida police had declared a reward of ₹25,000 on their arrest,” said Avasthy.
He further said the two suspects were earlier arrested in July from Sonepat by the GST department over revenue loss.
“Both of these businessmen were arrested by the GST department in July last year when we had shared a list of the 3,000 fake firms registered by the gang. After spending two months in jail in Haryana, they were released on bail. The Noida police have now arrested them on criminal charges for running the scam,” said Avasthy.
The suspects have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468 and 471 (all related to forgery), 120 B (party to criminal conspiracy), police said.