Two men, including an advocate, were arrested for allegedly running a racket involving bogus GST firms and issuing fake bills to facilitate fraudulent GST settlements.
According to police, the scam came to light when a resident of Sagarpur filed a complaint at the South West Delhi’s cyber police station. “The complainant alleged that while applying for a GST registration using his PAN card, he discovered that two GST numbers had already been issued in his name without his knowledge or consent. These GST numbers were being used to operate different trading firms, and a SIM card had also been issued using his Aadhaar card. The complainant claimed that the firms were conducting high-value transactions, causing significant reputational and financial damage to him,” DCP (South West) Amit Goel said.
A case was registered, and an investigation was initiated. With these leads, a police team mounted technical surveillance and examined credentials linked to the fraudulent GST accounts. “Based on location tracking, raids were conducted in Panipat and adjoining areas of NCR, leading to the arrest of the first accused. During his interrogation, he revealed that he worked under an advocate based in Burari,” the DCP added.
Based on this, the police team traced the advocate, who had absconded to Kairana in Uttar Pradesh after learning about his associate’s arrest. He was eventually tracked and arrested. “During the probe, cops found that genuine documents such as PAN cards, Aadhaar cards, rent agreements, SIMs, and email IDs were being misused to create fake GST firms. These firms were then used to issue fraudulent bills for GST settlements. The accused would obtain firm details from associates in Delhi, who sold them the login credentials and supporting SIM cards for Rs 25,000–Rs 30,000 per firm,” a senior police officer said.
“Once in control of these credentials, the duo would update the mobile numbers and email addresses linked to the GST accounts and begin operating them. Using software, they generated and uploaded fake invoices to the GST portal.”
One of the arrested men is a 27-year-old from Panipat, Haryana, who studied up to Class 12 and worked with an advocate for seven years. He primarily handled the technical aspects, logging into the bogus GST accounts, changing credentials, and preparing the fake bills. His associate, a 45-year-old advocate from Burari, arranged the procurement of GST firms through his network and oversaw their operation.
Source #TOI
