3 more held in 10k crore GST fraud case

NOIDA: Three more members of a gang believed to be behind the Rs 10,000-crore GST fraud were arrested on Friday, police said.
The gang allegedly orchestrated the fraud by registering more than 3,000 companies from stolen or fake identities and then using these firms to raise e-way bills and avail input tax credit (ITC) from the government.
The three who were arrested were identified as Atul Gupta, Sumit Garg, and Manan Singhal, all residents of Delhi’s Rohini. “We received a tip-off about some members of the gang involved in the GST scam. We formed a team and nabbed them on the DND while they were on their way to Greater Noida. We have come to know they were involved in generating bogus bills that were used to claim ITCs,” said additional DCP (Noida) Shakti Mohan Avasthy.
The three have been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, and 471 (all related to forgery), and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Police said on Friday that they had seized three mobile phones, some Aadhaar and PAN cards, driving licences, and other documents from the trio. Around Rs 42,000 cash was also recovered from them.
Before Friday’s arrest, 12 accused were nabbed in the case, which came to light earlier this month. The operation, police said, had been running for the past five years, and the gang had created around 2,600 bogus firms. It allegedly stole the PAN card details of 6.3 lakh people.
“So far, 15 persons have been arrested in total, and some more are on our radar. We are also scanning the bank accounts of the suspects to crack the money trail. Besides, a multi-agency probe launched by the Centre is also working on the case,” Avasthy added.