On the basis of the information shared by the Chief Commissioner Office, CGST & Customs, MeerutZone, Meerut, the officers of CGST Ghaziabad Commissionerate conducted a series of searches on 10.02.2021 at residential premises of Smt. Pinky Pundhir, Prop. of firms namely M/s Bhawani
Associates Ghaziabad & M/s Shree Shyam Associates Ghaziabad, and at residential premises of Shri Himanshu Gulati, Prop. of firms namely M/s Shree Jee Electric & Hardware/M/s Bhagwati Trading co.Ghaziabad, M/s Shree Jee Metal Delhi & M/s Unique Enterprises Ghaziabad, and Shri Kapil Goyal, Prop. of firm namely M/s Shree Jee Electric& Hardware. In the series of searches, statements of all 03 persons were recorded on 10.02.2021.
This lead to the unearthing of a GST fraud involving taxable value of Rs.81.29 Crores and passing of fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) of Rs. 12.4 crores approximately) involving 07 supplier firms. Further investigations are still underway and the quantum of fraud and the number of firms involved are likely to go up.
The modus operandi inter alia involved creating of fake firms and generating of fake/bogus invoices through them, and passing of inadmissible Input Tax Credit on the strength of such fake/bogus invoices, without actual supply of goods.
Subsequent to this, Smt. Pinky Pundhir & Shri Himanshu Gulati, Proprietors of the firms mentioned above, and Shri Kapil Goyal (under whose instructions, all the fake firms were creating and who is also the ultimate beneficiary) who were allegedly involved in the creation of fake firms, issuance of fake/bogus invoices and passing on of fraudulent ITC and availment of fraudulent ITC from these bogus firms, were arrested on 10.02.2021 under Section 132 (1) () of the CGST Act, 2017 and were produced before the court of Special CJM, Meerut who ordered for their judicial custody.
The team headed by Shri Abhinav Ujainia, Deputy Commissioner and Smt. Prabhjot Kaur, Assistant Commissioner, under the able guidance of Shri Harshvardhan Rai, Joint Commissioner and comprised of Sh. Ambuj Srivastava, Superintendent, Sh. Rajiv Ranjan, Superintendent, Sh. A.S.
Gahlawat, Superintendent, Sh. Vijay Meena, Inspector, Sh.Sumit Tyagi, Inspector, Sh. Indu Bhushan, Inspector, Sh. Arshad Ali, Inspector, Sh. Anadi Shukla, Inspector Sh. Vinay Singh, Inspector, Sh. Manoj Srivastava, Inspector & Sh. Sanjay Kumar, Inspector, of Anti-Evasion wing of Central GST Ghaziabad, were instrumental in busting this racket of fake invoices and fraudulent Input Tax Credit.
