Kolkata trader held for ‘₹500cr GST fraud’ in J’khand, 4 states

Jamshedpur, Mar 1, 2024

The Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI), Jamshedpur regional unit, has busted a racket of GST fraud of Rs 132 crore and arrested a Kolkata-based trader, Shiv Kumar Deora, who committed the multi-crore fraud by generating fake invoice bills in the name of dummy companies.

Officials said the fraud could run into over Rs 500 crores as the racket is spread across Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu besides Jharkhand.

A team constituted by DGGI joint director Ashutosh Kumar Singh on the direction of Ajazuddin, additional director of DGGI, Patna zone, arrested Deora, who was in his 50s, from Kolkata on Wednesday.

“He was brought here on transit remand on the same day and forwarded to jail,” an official said on Thursday.

In its preliminary investigation, the DGGI found that Deora caused a revenue loss of Rs 132 crore to the government by conducting fraudulent transactions after creating over two dozen fake companies.

Deora collected the documents of unemployed people, particularly women, in the name of providing them jobs and used these documents to form fake companies.

In December 2023, the DGGI officials arrested a Jugsalai resident and businessman, Vicky Bhalotia, on charges of committing GST fraud to the tune of Rs 9.50 crore.

[The Times of India]