Rs 137-Crore tax fraud in Ghaziabad: CGST team raids 36 locations, arrests businessman

The accused was running over 40 shell companies using different PAN numbers, mobile numbers, and bank accounts.

(Reported by Prateek Kaushik) Ghaziabad: The Central GST team has arrested a businessman in the investigation of tax evasion of Rs 137 crores in Ghaziabad. The CGST team was investigating the case for the last 4 months. 

The team searched the residences and offices of the accused at 36 places in Ghaziabad on April 4 and 5 and seized all documents. After his arrest, Rajiv, the mastermind of creating fake companies in tax evasion, was produced in a special court in Meerut on Tuesday (April 5), where he was sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The investigation in the matter was initiated in December-2020. 

An inquiry was initiated in December 2020 against Ghaziabad-based M/s Jai Enterprises and 41 other firms on the orders of CGST Commissionerate Meerut Zone. In the investigation, it was revealed that these were all shell companies which were being run by the same person using different PAN numbers, mobile numbers and bank accounts. Invoices of about Rs 628 crore and tax evasion of Rs 99 crore were exposed during the investigation at that time.

Investigation team is suspecting the involvement of over 100 fake companies.

During the investigation, two members of the racket, Naresh Kumar and Rupak Vashisht, were arrested by the team of CGST Ghaziabad on 21 April 2021 and 10 March 2022. 

CGST teams carried out investigation operations at 36 locations in Ghaziabad on 4th and 5th April. After this the mastermind of the racket, Rajiv Sharma was arrested.

It is claimed that 76 fake bogus firms have been found in the investigation so far. Officials fear that there could be more than a hundred such shell firms, which may operate in different jurisdictions. All these are being thoroughly investigated.