GST Fraud of Rs. 5 Crore; 3 Arrested in Chandigarh

Police’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) has arrested three men on Friday in connection with an alleged goods and services tax (GST) fraud. According to police officials, they discovered transactions totaling Rs.5 crore rupees that were carried out by shell companies, which were identified by the fake invoices.

The accused, identified as Jitender Singh Bhalla alias Vicky, 39, of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajeev Poonga, 55, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, and Pushp Behal, 49, of PGI Society, Sector 49, are alleged of engaging in a GST fraud that they carried out by claiming input credit based on fictitious invoices in order to defraud the government of Rs.5 crore.

A case under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the trio at the Sector 17 police station on December 13, 2019.

The complainant claimed that owner Rajeev obtained a registration under various GST Acts with the help of other associates. According to the registration application submitted on the GST portal, the company’s primary line of business was the supply of scrap.

It was also alleged that suspects generated bogus invoices of sales and received bogus invoices of purchase from the date of registration (July 1, 2018). The demand of tax and interest was created to the tune of Rs.5,10,94,466.

It was discovered that Bhalla had additionally founded SAI Enterprises in Jagadhari. In 2020, a fraud case was opened at the Jagadhari police station against Behal and Bhalla.

Bhalla was brought in on a production warrant for the case on December 19 and detained by police for three days. Poonga and Behal were detained by authorities after being taken into custody on December 20.

According to the police, evidence gathered during the investigation showed that Behal gave Bhalla signed checks that he had obtained from Poonga.