Kingpin in Rs 3k-cr GST scam held from Kolkata
JAMSHEDPUR: The Jamshedpur unit of the directorate general of GST Intelligence (DGGI) arrested the kingpin Amit Gupta and his brother Sumit Gupta from Kolkata in the Rs 3,000-crore GST scam leading to tax evasion of Rs 522 crore so far, officials said here on Tuesday.
The breakthrough came after two teams of Jamshedpur DGGI succeeded in arresting Gupta brothers from Salt Lake city of Kolkata on Sunday night. Both the accused were then produced in a local court there and brought to Jamshedpur on transit remand on Tuesday.
“Both accused were produced in the special court of justice Saudamini Singh for economic offences in Jamshedpur this afternoon. The court has sent them in 14 days judicial custody. We will seek their remand at a later stage,” a joint director level officer of DGGI told HT on Tuesday.
The successful operation was carried out as per the instructions by the additional director general (ADG) of DGGI Patna zonal unit Ajazuddin to DGGI Jamshedpur joint director Ashutosh Kumar Singh. The teams led by senior intelligence officer (SIO) Raushan Kumar Mitra, IOs Rajeev Ranjan and Dinesh Kumar camped in Kolkata for six days to nab the accused.
DGGI officials said the arresting of Amit Gupta was a crucial breakthrough as he turned out to be the kingpin and actual mastermind behind the GST tax evasion in lieu of input credit through network of fake shell companies, fake challans and invoices. “Hawala transactions worth crores too have been detected and Enforcement Directorate (ED) will be intimated as per due process,” they said.
“During the investigation, fake transactions worth Rs 3,000 crore have been traced so far through a network of over 100 fake shell companies, resulting in GST evasion of Rs 522 crore as of now. The transactions could go up to Rs 5,000 crore as the investigation further progresses. A few more arrests are also expected soon. The network is spread across Jharkhand, Bihar, West
DGGI JAMSHEDPUR UNIT HAD EARLIER ARRESTED SHIV KUMAR DEURA, ANOTHER KEY PLAYER IN THE SCAM IN FEBRUARY
Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Maharashtra,” the DGGI official said.
The DGGI Jamshedpur unit had earlier arrested Shiv Kumar Deura, another key player in the GST scam network, from Kolkata in February this year and Jamshedpurbased Vicky Bhalotia in December 2023. Bhalotia came out of jail on bail from Jharkhand High Court last week.