Customs clearing agent held in 175-cr GST refund scam

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) probing the role of a sales tax officer in a Rs. 175 crore GST refund scam on Tuesday arrested a customs clearing agent. The sales tax officer in question, Amit Lalge, is on the run.

The ACB arrested Kiran Bhanusali (31), who is hiding since March when the case was registered. Sources said he was arrested when he came to pay the school fees of his son in Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai.

This is the first arrest in the case. Bhanusali was produced before the special ACB court on Wednesday in police custody. His interrogations led police to identify the mastermind, Farooq Shaikh, who is currently lodged in jail in connection with another cheating case. Farooq was arrested by the CBI in March this year in a Rs. 200- crore cheating case. Police are also looking for the acoomplice, Faizan alias Nadeem.

In March this year, the ACB had booked Amit Lalge and 16 unknown traders for causing wrongful loss of Rs. 175 crore to the government. The scam came to light after the sales tax department conducted an audit and found that a group of 16 companies had submitted 39 tax refund applications for a total sum of Rs. 175 crore without paying any tax to the exchequer. Lalge’s role came to light during their internal audit.

According to the ACB, the alleged scam took place between August 2021 and March 2022. Scrutiny of documents of these 16 traders were found to be from Ghatkopar and Kurla. These traders had registration certificates attributed to only three addresses in Ghatkopar and many of them had common addresses and all of them were found to be rented, operating from 200-300 sq ft spaces. “Only four of the firms were registered with the ROC,” said assistant commissioner of police Manisha Zende.

The money trail led police to a bank account belonging to Bhanusali, who played the middleman’s role. He assisted in creating fake companies and shipping documents, said investigating officer Mohan Jagdale. Lalge abused his position through he was not authorised even to clear the refunds exceeding Rs. 5 lakh, said Vijay Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police, ACB.

Source: The Times of India