FAKE GST INVOICES RACKET BUSTED, KINGPIN ARRESTED

MEERUT : The anti-evasion wing of the central goods and services tax (CGST) of the Meerut Commissionerate arrested a native of Meerut for allegedly operating a racket of issuing fake GST invoices of over Rs 200 crore.

The team led by assistant commissioner, Ankit Gehlot, arrested the kingpin, Vikas Jain, from his rented house in Ghaziabad on Tuesday and seized Rs 4.43 crore from there.

The accused was allegedly benefitting builders in Meerut, Ghaziabad and Madhya Pradesh through 29 Meerut-based fake companies, said officials.

The Meerut Commissionerate of CGST covers nine districts of western UP. Its principal commissioner, SV Singh, said the court sent Vikas Jain to judicial custody for 14 days.

In the current financial year, the anti-evasion team exposed four fraudulent activities including fake invoices of Rs 3,768 crore and ITC (input tax credit) of Rs 675.82 crore. Seven accused were arrested a total recovery of Rs 18.06 crore was made, said Gehlot.

Addressing mediapersons, principal commissioner SV Singh said the team was now tracking those people who availed benefits from Vikas Jain and evaded taxes worth crores.

The officials said that a team had been keeping a close watch on Jain after receiving inputs about his fraudulent activities

and his fake billings racket. They conducted searches at 11 locations in Meerut and Ghaziabad last week.

He was involved in issuing invoices for building material like cement, steel etc and during interrogation Jain confessed floating multiple fictitious firms using the identity of his wife.

Jain was running the racket from a rented house in Ghaziabad.

The team recovered incriminating records, copies of the invoices issued, cheque books of multiple fake firms and Indian currency of Rs 4.43 crore from him.