Two brothers held for Rs 700 cr GST fraud

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has arrested two brothers for a Rs 700 crore GST fraud.

The suspects were identified as Manish and Amit of Gurmukh Singh Colony in Mandi Gobindgarh. They allegedly created fictitious firms through identity fraud and created a chain of fake billing of over Rs 700 crore with fake input tax credit (ITC), defrauding the government of more than Rs 100 crore.

According to a press note, the ITC was passed on to intermediary firms which deposited the amount into seven Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Committee (APMC) accounts in a bank. The two brothers used to withdraw cash from these accounts. The total cash withdrawals from the account stood at over Rs 717 crore till date.

A search was conducted at their residential and official premises and the DGGI team seized 11 mobile phones, seven pen drives, two laptops, 56 cheque books of multiple bank accounts etc.