Noida Police Expose Rs 350 Crore Fake GST Refund Network

Two men from Noida were arrested in Greater Noida’s Patwari area on Monday for allegedly being part of a big tax fraud group that created many fake companies across western Uttar Pradesh to cheat the government and claim fake GST refunds worth crores of rupees.

Police said the accused, Praveen Kumar from Saloni village in Hapur district and Satendra Singh from Bihrahu village in Bulandshahr district, were involved in a well-organised racket. This group’s job was to make fake documents like Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, and rent agreements to create bogus firms and register them online on the UDYAM and GST portals as if they were real businesses.

Using these fake details, they also opened current bank accounts in several branches of the Bank of India in Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida). These accounts were then used to carry out fraudulent transactions and claim fake GST refunds, causing a huge loss to the government.

Central Noida DCP Shakti Mohan Avasthy added, “They used fake KYC papers with their own photographs to open these accounts and operate the firms. The accounts were then used to receive fraudulent GST refunds, which were immediately diverted to other linked accounts to avoid detection.”

Police have recovered documents such as Aadhaar and PAN cards, rent agreements, 10 firm stamps, cheque books, bank account opening forms and several mobile numbers as well, which were used for OTP verification.

Officials said that to hide their digital footprint, the two accused used nine main mobile numbers, which were connected to 18 different mobile devices (through IMEI numbers). Using these connections, they managed a total of 87 mobile numbers, all used to run their fake operations and communicate within the fraud network without being easily traced.

During the investigation, police have found six fake firms directly connected to the two men – M/s Ridhi Sidhi Enterprises, M/s Bhawani Impex, M/s Jhalak Enterprises, M/s Gaurav Enterprises, M/s Damini India International, and M/s Radhika Enterprises. The bank accounts of these fake companies showed suspicious transactions worth about Rs 3.4 crore between June and November this year.

According to police, this was just a small part of a much larger network that helped register around 85 fake companies in total. These firms together had claimed nearly Rs 51 crore in fraudulent GST input tax credit (ITC) refunds. Officials believe that the group may have also issued fake invoices worth up to Rs 350 crore to support their fraud.

An FIR has been registered against Praveen Kumar and Satendra Singh under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and investigations are continuing to trace other members of the syndicate and find where the illegal money went.