On Sunday, Madhya Pradesh police announced that five persons from Gujarat had been arrested in connection with an alleged GST credit fraud of Rs 700 crore.
The accused set up a network of roughly 500 fraudulent organizations using forged documents, addresses, and identities to run the fake GST input tax credit (ITC) scheme.
Officials said that by submitting phony invoices through the bogus entities, they generated and passed on more over 700 crore in input tax credit.
The accused channeled the transactions through digital wallet accounts linked to multiple mobile phones, according to a joint investigation by the Central GST Commissionerate in Indore and the Madhya Pradesh Police’s cyber division.
“The suspects were avoiding traditional banking channels by routing transactions through various digital wallet accounts,” said Cyber Cell Indore unit inspector Rashid Khan.
On May 25, they were apprehended in Surat, Gujarat. While the major operator and his close colleague are being questioned by officials from the CGST Indore Commissionerate, the three others are being questioned by Indore’s cyber unit cops.
During the search operation, officials confiscated mobile phones, SIM cards, documents, seals, and letter pads belonging to the fictitious firms from the premises associated to the accused in Surat.
“All of the defendants are school dropouts between the ages of 25 and 35,” Mr Khan said.
