The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Gurugram Zonal Unit (GZU), Haryana has arrested Shri Deepak Mittal, resident of Mayur Vihar, New Delhi, and proprietor of M/s DK Enterprise and Shri Ankur Garg, resident of Hansi, district Hisar, Haryana, proprietor of M/s Garg Enterprises.

Both the persons were found involved in fake invoices racket and fraudulently passed/ availed Input Tax Credit amounting to ₹ 141 Crores (approx.) through assistance of complex web chain of various entities.

During investigation it was found that Shri Deepak Mittal, an authorised dealer of ITC, have issued sale invoices of cigarettes directly/ indirectly (through Shri Ankur Garg) to various dummy/ non-existent trading firms thereby causing loss to exchequer by evasion of GST. These dummy/ non-existent trading firms further issued fake invoices to various export firms which have filed IGST refund claim on the basis of these fake invoices. It was discovered that no export of cigarettes took place and the IGST refund claim filed by these export firms was bogus and in many cases claim was rejected by the jurisdictional Centre/ State GST authorities.

Thus, Shri Deepak Mittal and Shri Ankur Garg have committed offences under the provisions of Section 132(1)(b) & (c) of the Central Goods & Services Tax Act (CGST), 2017, which are cognizable and non-bailable offences and punishable under Section 132 of the CGST Act, 2017.

Consequently, Shri Deepak Mittal and Shri Ankur Garg were arrested on 26th November, 2019 under Section 69(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 and produced before Judicial Magistrate in Gurugram Court on 26th November, 2019. The court has sent them to judicial custody till 10th December, 2019. Further investigation in the matter is in progress.

GST fraud triggers arrests under CGST provisions for fake invoices and input tax credit abuse Alleged GST fraud involved proprietors issuing and circulating fake invoices through dummy and non-existent firms to wrongfully avail and pass Input Tax Credit and to support bogus IGST refund claims for non-existent exports; conduct is charged as offences under Section 132 of the CGST Act and arrests were made under Section 69 with custodial remand while investigation continues.