Bhubaneswar: The State GST Enforcement Squad Monday arrested the kingpin of a GST racket involved in generation of fake invoices worth Rs 712 crore and passing of bogus input tax credit (ITC) of Rs 129 crores over multiple transactions routed through different chains.
SK Lohani, Commissioner (CT&GST), Odisha said the mastermind, Kashmira Kumar Agrawal, Director of M/s Madhumita Steels Industries Pvt Ltd, has been arrested from Sambalpur.
Agrawal was arrested u/s 69 of OGST Act, 2017 for commission of cognizable and non-bailable offence u/s 132(1)(a) and (b) read with section 132(4) of OGST Act.
Investigations revealed that the mastermind hired middlemen to collect credentials such as PAN, Aadhaar, photographs from persons of no means (housewives, drivers, plumbers) of Sundargarh and Sambalpur districts on the pretext of giving them gainful employment / handsome amounts of money in every month but misutilised the documents to fulfill his vested interest and defrauded the government revenue.
According to the authorities, the accused showed to have purchased goods worth `13 crore but transferred `38 crore to the said firm through its bank account raising suspicion regarding his involvement in money laundering.
The probe revealed that Agarwal fraudulently availed bogus ITC of Rs 113.81 crore and passed on bogus input tax credit worth Rs 129.09 crore in the name of 14 fictitious firms created and operated by him on the strength of fake invoices.
