The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday (August 7) conducted search operations at eight locations across Jharkhand, Kolkata, and Mumbai in the fake GST scam worth ₹730 crore.
The current searches are being undertaken based on “credible evidence” that indicates involvement of several individuals and firms in laundering “proceeds of crime”.
Earlier this year, the ED had arrested Shiv Kumar Devda along with his associates Mohit Devda, Amit Gupta and Amit Agarwal in this case.
The ED investigation revealed that the syndicate led by Shiv Kumar Devda and his associates had created a network of 135 fake companies, which existed only on paper and were used to issue fake invoices worth more than ₹5,000 crore without the actual supply of goods or services.
PTI reported Shiv Kumar Devda was charge sheeted last month following his arrest in May 2025.
The ED had conducted the first round of searches in this case in May.
Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed Parliament on August 4 that Central GST field officers have detected tax evasion of about Rs 7.08 lakh crore in the last five years till 2024-25 fiscal, including input tax credit (ITC) fraud of about Rs 1.79 lakh crore.
In 2024-25 fiscal alone, over Rs 2.23 lakh crore of GST evasion were detected by CGST field officers, the minister stated.
Of the 30,056 cases of GST evasion detected in FY’25, more than half or 15,283 cases pertained to ITC fraud, where the evasion was to the tune of Rs 58,772 crore.
