Rs 15K GST fraud exposes how Aadhaar data of poor misused to create cos

The Noida Police have arrested three more suspects in connection with an alleged Rs 15,000 crore GST scam, officials said. With this, the total number of arrests in the case has increased to 15.

With this, the total number of arrests in the case has increased to 15.

The three individuals identified as Atul Gupta, Sumit Garg, and Manan Singhal, all residents of Uttar Pradesh, were arrested on Friday.

Upon their arrest, fake invoices, GST registration certificates of six firms, two Aadhaar cards, three mobile phones, Rs 42,000 in cash, PAN cards, and two luxury cars were recovered from their possession, the police said.

"We have earlier arrested 12 persons linked to the case and three more have been arrested now. So far 15 persons have been arrested and some more are on police radar," the police said.

Earlier this month, the Noida Police busted a gang involved in the Rs 15,000 crore GST fraud scheme.

The scam involved registering thousands of companies under stolen or fake identities and utilising these firms to generate e-way bills and obtain input tax credit (ITC) from the government.

The police said that on June 1, eight suspects, including women, were arrested in the case. The operation had been running for the past five years, and the gang had created around 2,600 bogus firms. Later, four more suspects were arrested in the case.

Along with the Noida Police, the Centre has involved other intelligence agencies in tracking the members of the syndicate.

"A system has been created under the Input tax Credit wherein you get the credit for the payments made earlier. These credits get posted in your GST account," said Raja Ram Gupta, special investigation branch (grade 2), UP-GST department.

"The company did not exist in any legal records. It only took invoices and passed it on to claim ITC without doing any business," added Gupta.

Input tax credit means claiming the credit of the GST paid on purchase of goods and services that are used for the furtherance of business by sales. This can be used to reduce the GST burden by businesses, the official added.

Talking to IANS, the GST Commissioner said that the gang used to transfer some amounts in the bank accounts of poor people living in slum areas in the name of any government scheme or any other scheme. In lieu of the amounts deposited, the victims' accounts would take away their Aadhaar and PAN cards.

Then the gang used to link their (gang) mobile numbers with their (victims) Aadhaar numbers. After this the new PAN card was applied immediately. And then on the basis of Aadhaar and PAN card numbers, fake companies were registered.