Delhi: Two persons arrested in cases of fraudulent IGST refund claims

Two persons were arrested by the Directorate General (DG) of GST Intelligence in alleged cases of fraudulent IGST refund claims on Friday.

The two persons have been identified as Ramesh Wadhera and Mukesh Kumar.

As per the statement of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), the action was taken on receipt of an input from Delhi-based Allahabad Bank that suspicious transactions were noticed in the accounts of four proprietorship firms (Monal Enterprises and Ors.) wherein large quantum of IGST refunds had been received by them immediately after their opening, without any prior business transaction history.

Further, the refunds credited to these bank accounts were withdrawn and transferred in quick succession. Developing on the input, the DGGI verified that the addresses of these firms were either non-existent or the firms were not operating on the given addresses.

Further probe into the matter revealed that the said four firms were in the names of Benami individuals whose identification documents had been fraudulently obtained for the opening of these bank accounts and to obtain GST registrations.

The investigation also revealed that the said four firms had no corresponding purchases against the exports claimed to have been made by them, nor had any export proceeds been realised. E-way bill data also revealed that the corresponding movement of goods did not exist. Therefore, the said four firms had indulged in fraudulent availment of IGST refunds on the basis of fake invoices.

The investigations further revealed that Ramesh Wadhera the mastermind who has controlled these fake firms and operated them with the connivance and active involvement of Mukesh Kumar who fraudulently obtained identification documents used in this racket, from gullible employment seekers.

It was further found that 10 more similar fake or fraudulent firms are being operated by the said two individuals. The total fraudulent IGST refund availed by these 14 firms amounts to Rs. 44 crore, approximately.

Searches were conducted at several premises over August 13-15.

Both Wadhera and Kumar have been arrested under the provisions of Section 67 of the CGST Act, read with Section 20 of the IGST Act, 2017 for their active role in defrauding the exchequer by claiming fraudulent IGST refunds. Wadhera is learnt to have several old cases of DRI/Customs against him.

Further probe in the matter is underway.