PRESS NOTE
03 PERSONS ARRESTED IN CASE OF ISSUING FAKE INVOICES OF RS.81 CRORES AND AVAILING INADMISSIBLE ITC OF RS.12.4 CRORES
On the basis of the information shared by the Chief Commissioner Office, CGST & Customs, Meerut Zone, Meerut, the officers of CGST Ghaziabad Commissionerate conducted a series of searches on 10.02.2021 at residential premises of Smt. Pinky Pundhir, Prop. of firms namely M/s 8hawani Associates Ghaziabad & M/s Shree Shyam Associates Ghaziabad, and at residential premises of Shri Himanshu Gulati, Prop. of firms namely M/s Shree lee Electric & Hardware/M/s Bhagwati Trading co. Ghaziabad, M/s Shree lee Metal Delhi & M/s Unique Enterprises Ghaziabad, and Shri Kapil Goyal, Prop. of firm namely M/s Shree lee Electric & Hardware. In the series of searches, statements of all 03 persons were records on 10.02.2021.
2. This lead to unearthing of a GST fraud involving taxable value of Rs.81.29 Crores and passing of fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) of Rs. 12.4 crores(approximately) involving 07 supplier firms. Further investigations are still underway and the quantum of fraud and the number of firms involved are likely to go up.
3. The modus operandi Inter alia involved creating of fake firms and generating of fake/bogus invoices through them, and passing of inadmissible Input Tax Credit on the strength of such fake/bog us invoices, without actual supply of goods.
4. Subsequent to this, Smt. Pinky Pundhir & Shri Himanshu Gulati, Proprietors of the firms mentioned above, and Shri KapII Goyal (under whose Instructions, all the fake firms were created and who is also the ultimate beneficiary) who were allegedly involved in the creation of fake firms, issuance of fake/bogus invoices and passing on of fraudulent ITC and availment of fraudulent ITC from these bogus firms, were arrested on 10.02.2021 under Section 132 (1) (f) of the CGST Act, 2017 and were produced before the court of Special CM, Meerut who ordered for their judicial custody.
5. The team headed by Shri Abhinav Ujjainia, Deputy Commissioner and Smt. Prabhjot Kaur, Assistant Commissioner, under the able guidance of Shri Harshvardhan Rai, Joint Commissioner and comprised of Sh. Ambuj Srivastava, Superintendent, Sh. Rajiv Ranjan, Superintendent, Sh. A.S. Gahlawn. Superintendent , Sh. Vijay Meena, Inspector, Sh.Sumit Tyagi, Inspector, Sh. Indu Shushan, Inspector, Sh. Arshad Ali, inspecior,Sh. Anadi Shukla, Inspector Sh. Vinay Singh, Inspector, Sh. Manoj Srivastava, Inspector & Sh. Sanjay Kumar, Inspector, of Anti Evasion wing of Central GST Ghaziabad, were instrumental in busting this racket of fake invoices and fraudulent Input Tax Credit.
(Alok Jha)
Commissioner
Central GST Ghaziabad
