The Gurugram Zonal Unit (GZU) of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), has arrested one person on 18.01.2022 under the provisions of the GST Act on charges of running multiple fake firms on the strength of fake documents and having passed on fraudulently ITC to the quantum of ₹ 491 crore.

Acting upon on specific inputs from Jaipur Zonal unit of DGGI that a person was providing cloud storage facility to various persons across India, for carrying out their work from remote locations and storing data, Hard Disk recovered from the Cloud service provider was scrutinized. Through scrutiny of data contained in such Hard Disk being provided by the Cloud Storage facility, the identity of the key operative emerged who appeared to be running a nexus of 93 fake firms.

During searches conducted on 18/01/2022, various firms were found non-existent at their given addresses.  The key operative who was actively using the cloud storage service and running the said firms was apprehended from Hansi in Haryana on 18/1/2022.  During investigation, the key operative admitted to have orchestrated the fraud along with other accomplices.  Based on the verifications, evidences and statements recorded, he appeared to be a key person in the functioning of the racket of creation of fake firms, issuing of invoices without actual supply of goods in respect of 93 fake firms which has led to passing on of fraudulent and inadmissible ITC of ₹ 491 crore and thereby, violation of multiple provisions of the CGST Act, 2017.  Accordingly, he was arrested on 18/1/2022 and sent to 14 days Judicial Custody by Duty Magistrate.

Further investigation in the case is underway.

Input tax credit fraud exposed after cloud-storage evidence leads to arrest for running nexus of fake firms. Enforcement action detected a scheme to obtain inadmissible input tax credit by creating non existent entities and issuing fictitious invoices. Cloud storage data identified a key operative running a nexus of fake firms; searches found multiple firms absent at their declared addresses. The operative was arrested, admitted involvement, and was remanded to judicial custody while investigations under the CGST Act, 2017 continue.