Hyderabad Police Bust Rs 11.79 Crore GST Fraud Network; Mastermind Still Absconding

Hyderabad Police arrested two persons on November 13 for allegedly being part of an interstate network that created 10 fake GST-registered firms and fraudulently claimed Rs 11.79 crore in Input Tax Credit (ITC).

The Hyderabad Police Commissionerate said the two accused used fake documents to register the firms and created bogus invoices and fabricated turnovers, which caused an Rs 11.79 crore loss to the government.

The group operated across several states by using fake Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, electricity bills, rent agreements, and other forged documents. They also used computers to tamper with government portals, allowing them to carry out large-scale GST fraud.

Earlier, a 34-year-old man from Gujarat, who was the organizer, and a 43-year-old man, who was the financial handler, were arrested on November 12 in connection with the case. However, the alleged mastermind from Delhi and two others, including a technical operator, are missing.

Police added that the five accused created around ten bogus GST-registered companies by creating identities using altered Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, electricity bills, rental agreements, GHMC licenses, and Labour Department certificates.

Using fake documents, they got SIM cards issued under false names. Then they used those SIM cards to complete OTP verifications on the GST portal and successfully registered fake GST numbers for nonexistent companies.

After that, they used these fake GST numbers to create bogus purchase and sales invoices, showing a fake turnover of Rs 53.73 crore and illegally claiming Rs 11.79 crore in Input Tax Credit (ITC), even though no goods were actually bought or sold.

To make their fraud look real, they also generated fake E-way bills, using real vehicle numbers with tampered chassis details.