Karnataka’s commercial taxes department said on Sunday that it had busted a Rs 1,464-crore interstate fake invoice racket, arresting two people each in the state and Tamil Nadu.
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The department said that simultaneous raids were conducted in Bengaluru as well as Chennai, Vellore, and Pernampattu based on intelligence inputs about suspicious activities related to the Goods and Services Tax.
According to the department, the racket generated fraudulent inward and outward supply transactions amounting to Rs 1,464 crore for commodities such as cement, iron and steel, and other building materials, using forged documents. This resulted in the wrongful availment and passing on of input tax credit, without any actual movement of goods.
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Officials seized 24 mobile phones, 51 SIM cards, two pen drives, multiple bank statements, and several rubber stamps of different business entities during the raids.
During the operation, two brothers from Tamil Nadu, Irbaz Ahmed and Nafiz Ahmed, who had allegedly floated several fake firms such as Trion Traders, Wonder Traders, Royal Traders, and Galaxy Enterprises, were arrested in Pernampattu.
Eddala Pratap and Revati, who had allegedly created shell entities such as Power Steel and Cement, P.R. Construction, S.V. Traders, and S.R.S. Cement Steel Traders, were arrested in Bengaluru.
All the accused were produced before a special court for economic offences in Bengaluru and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.