Five booked in Rs 3,000 crore fake GST invoice racket using shell firms in Punjab
Five people have been booked for allegedly being involved in a fake GST invoice racket worth Rs 3,000 crore, police said on Saturday. The case
Five people have been booked for allegedly being involved in a fake GST invoice racket worth Rs 3,000 crore, police said on Saturday. The case was registered on the complaint of Enforcement Directorate assistant director Suraj Kumar Yadav. The accused have been identified as Amit Kumar Goyal, his brother Manish Kumar, and Gaurav Aggarwal, all residents of Mandi Gobindgarh, and Gurdeep Singh and Balwant Singh, residents of Lohar Majra in Fatehgarh Sahib. Read Full Story Police said the five allegedly created dozens of shell firms and used identical addresses, phone numbers and email IDs to build a money trail.
According to the complaint, the accused raised fake GST invoices and layered payments through multiple entities before the money reached Agriculture Produce Market Committee bank accounts held with IDFC First Bank. Police said large amounts of cash were then withdrawn from the bank to avoid tax deduction at source under the Income Tax Act. The accused allegedly used at least 25 accounts to withdraw Rs 3,089.57 crore. The data related to the fraudulent transactions was investigated by the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence.
Police said the accused had floated 27 bogus firms to claim fake input tax credit of Rs 108.49 crore against bogus billing of Rs 720.97 crore. Two firms used Amit's PAN, while the remaining firms were created using the KYC documents of financially weak persons. Investigators recovered 54 cheque books, 46 ATM cards, 11 PAN cards, stamps, phones and laptops. Police said Amit Goyal, described as an entry operator since 2018, allegedly confessed that he took payments from firms and returned cash after deducting his commission.
There was no movement of goods and the transactions existed only on paper, police said. Assistant Sub-inspector Gurmeet Singh said further investigation is underway. The case centres on alleged fake GST invoices, shell firms, layered fund transfers and large cash withdrawals linked to bogus transactions carried out only on paper. Ends
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