Rajasthan duo booked in Pune on charge of Rs 496 crore GST fraud

PUNE: The Koregaon Park police on Monday booked two men from Rajasthan and others on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery for allegedly registering 54 bogus firms to run an organised crime syndicate in seven states to forge documents and evade GST worth Rs496.27 crore between December 2020 and August 2024.
"The accused, Dinesh Kumar (26) from Deoda-Jalor in Rajasthan, and Virendra Kumar (26) from Vadner in Rajasthan, were arrested by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Pune zonal unit, in May and September 2024, respectively, on charges of evading GST in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. They were released on bail after chargesheets were filed against them in the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Pune. We have transferred the probe to the Economic Offences Wing because the crime has wider ramifications, affecting different states," said senior inspector Runal Mulla on Tuesday.
DGGI's senior intelligence officer Anurag Srivastav said, "GST officials traced the cellphone numbers and the email addresses used to register multiple bogus firms, but none of them paid taxes worth Rs496.27 crore for the mentioned period," said Srivastav.
The GST officer said investigations revealed that Dinesh and Virendra, both known to each other, used fake Aadhaar and PAN cards to open a total of 54 bogus non-existing firms and bank accounts to evade GST by claiming the benefit of input tax credit. GST officials later traced their cellphone locations and arrested them. Dinesh, during the questioning, claimed that he ran a mobile handset shop, while Virendra said he was a college student, Srivastav said.
His FIR was registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.