Ranchi, Sep 30 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate’s Ranchi unit has attached 10 immovable properties worth Rs 15.41 crore in Kolkata and Howrah in West Bengal in connection with a GST input tax credit fraud case, officials said.

In a statement, the ED on Tuesday evening said that the properties attached by its officials in West Bengal “belong to Amit Gupta, one of the principal masterminds of the syndicate and his aides”.

“The attachments were made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The total attachment in this case so far stands at nearly Rs 20.70 crore,” it said.

The ED officials started investigation into the matter following a complaint filed by the Jamshedpur unit of the Director General of GST Intelligence in Jharkhand.

Upon investigation, the officials found that forgery was conducted through floating of multiple shell companies not only in Jharkhand, but in the two other eastern Indian states of West Bengal and Odisha, the statement said.

“Bogus GST invoices with ITC (input tax credit) worth around Rs 794 crore were issued in cases where, in reality, no supply of goods were made,” it said.

While this was the first step of the forgery, the second step was the selling of forged ITC against hefty commissions to certain entities, who were the end-users in this chain, it said.

According to ED's findings, the fraudsters earned a total commission of around Rs 67 crore through this forgery.

Subsequently, Gupta “converted the commissions earned into assets purchased in the names of his close relatives and associates, many of which were attached by the investigating officials of the ED on Monday”, the statement said.

Besides Gupta, the ED officials also arrested three other accused. PTI ANB RBT

Asset attachment under Prevention of Money Laundering Act used to seize properties linked to GST input tax credit fraud. Properties were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after investigators linked immovable assets in Kolkata and Howrah to a syndicate that issued bogus GST invoices to create false input tax credit claims, sold those credits for commissions, and converted commissions into assets held in relatives' and associates' names; multiple persons were arrested and numerous properties attached following the probe.