GST scam: Noida cops nab 4 more from Delhi, total arrests 29

Four Delhi-based men were arrested by the Noida Police on Thursday in connection with its investigation into a GST fraud case, taking the total number of those held to 29, officials said.

The police have found a list of 250 bogus companies which were used to claim tax benefits under GST and have got Rs 3 crore of ill-gotten money frozen in eight bank accounts linked to the arrestees, they said.

Among the bogus firms found, some had even shown import-export business with companies based abroad such as in Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines, the police said. ''As part of investigation into the case, four more people have been arrested today by officials of the Sector 20 police station,'' Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Harish Chander told reporters.

''Data of 250 bogus companies which were used to fraudulently claim input tax credit have been recovered from them, while around Rs 3 crore in eight bank accounts linked to these accused have been frozen so far,'' Chander, who was joined by Additional DCP Shakti Mohan Avasthy and ACP Rajneesh Verma, said.

Those held have been identified as Rahul Nigam (29), Piyush Kumar Gupta (36), both residents of Shahdara in Delhi, Dilip Sharma (29) from Indralok and Rakesh Kumar (47) from Peetampura, the police said.

Known as the GST fraud scam, the case pertains to thousands of bogus companies being floated on the basis of forged Aadhaar cards, fake invoices being raised by them and input tax credit (ITC) being claimed on their behalf, according to the police.

DCP Chander said previously tax benefits worth Rs 4,000 crore claimed in behalf of bogus companies linked to the case have been frozen by police and GST department.

The police said they have recovered forged items included 41 stamp seals, 18 Aadhar cards, 16 PAN cards, and 54 SIM cards, 20 bank cheque books, among other items, from the possession of the arrestees.

''The accused had a well organised gang which was involved in GST fraud. A person named Nishant Agarwal has been identified as their leader who provided them with data for floating bogus companies on GST numbers which were used for cleaning the input tax credit and their by causing loss of thousands of crore in revenue to the public ex-checker," the police said in a statement.

Accused Nishant is currently at large and suspected to have relocated to Mumbai to evade arrest. Also, it has come to light that the address on which these forged companies were formed are different from the actual location of these gang members, the police said.

One of the accused arrested today, Piyush Kumar Gupta, is an MBA from the Delhi University, the police said.

''The investigation so far in the case has also revealed that Nishant Agarwal used to travel to foreign countries in order to keep his bogus companies running,'' the police said.

''As per the police investigation the gang made fake e bills for ITC worth rupees 70 lakh to 80 lakh everyday,'' the police said.

The accused 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 added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)