GST invoices fraud: ‘Mastermind’ who created 115 fake firms among 59 arrested

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has so far arrested 59 people, including three chartered accountants (CAs), in 10 days of its nationwide drive against submission of fake Goods and Services Tax (GST) invoices.

According to people aware of the developments, Mitesh M Shah, who the DGGI has named the mastermind of the fake invoices scam, is among those arrested. Shah created 115 fake firms to avail and pass on fraudulent input tax credit (ITC) worth Rs 50.24 crore on fake invoices of miscellaneous goods/services in Vadodara, Gujarat, they added.

A woman mastermind too has been arrested, the people cited above said.

So far, the DGGI has registered 793 cases and identified 2,802 such entities involved. It has also sent a letter to Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to take obligatory action for professional misconduct against the three CAs who have been arrested from Ludhiana and Hyderabad.

Eight people were arrested in DGGI raids today. Out of these, four - Mahendrabhai Desai of M/s Sanjay Corporation, Rakesh Kumar Chavda of M/s Setal Enterprise, Mohd lshaq lsmail Ansari of M/s Lohiya Enterprise and Jignesh Kumar R Patel - were arrested by its Ahmedabad unit. Two others - Parth Jain and Ranjan Kumar Saha - were also arrested from Bengaluru and Kolkata, respectively.

On Tuesday, searches and surveys were conducted in 32 cities - Bhubaneswar, Meerut, Bhopal, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Nagpur, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Surat, Vadodara, Una, Rajkot, Kochi, Hosur, Gurugram, Pune, Ludhiana, Ranchi, Belagavi, Patna, Guwahati, Raipur and Jammu.

The CGST Commissionerates and the DGGI recovered Rs 177.50 crore in cash in these raids. Efforts are on to apprehend some of the fraudsters who are absconding.