2 men from Delhi arrested for Rs 25cr GST evasion - Times of India

Agra: Two men from Delhi were arrested for allegedly evading GST to the tune of Rs 25 crore by floating dozens of fake firms, police said on Saturday.The arrests followed an FIR lodged by GST officials at Sadar police station in Mainpuri about two months ago against two fraudulent firms suspected of large-scale tax evasion.

Given the technical nature of the offence, the probe was later transferred to the cyber police station.During the investigation, police identified two suspects from Delhi — Chandan Mishra, 32, and Sanjeet Singh, 33, both residents of Swaroop Nagar, and arrested them on Friday. Police said Mishra has a previous criminal record and had earlier been jailed."Four mobile phones, a laptop and documents related to 12 GST-registered firms were recovered from their possession," said Mainpuri SP Ganesh Prasad Saha.

A case has been registered under multiple sections, including 318 (4) (cheating) of BNS.Police said the duo allegedly obtained GST registrations for fake firms and carried out tax evasion worth crores of rupees. Their modus operandi involved luring poor and unsuspecting individuals with small sums of money on the pretext of offering jobs, collecting their Aadhaar and PAN details, and then opening bank accounts and registering GST firms in their names.

Fake GST invoices and e-way bills were then generated to illegally claim input tax credit. Police said Mishra handled accounting and GST-related work, while Sanjeet arranged locations for the firms. The accused admitted to creating fake GST and e-way bills for around 150 firms."GST officials submitted an application stating that, on a large scale, fake companies were registered using fraudulent GST numbers with the objective of evading tax liability," said the SP.He added that the investigation was underway to identify and apprehend all linked individuals. "Strict action will be taken against anyone else found to be involved in the racket," said Saha.