The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), which is investigating the GST refund scam amounting to Rs. 175 crore, has arrested three persons, including the alleged mastermind and a sales tax official.
The ABC arrested the mastermind, Farooq Shaikh, Farooq Contractor, and sales tax officer Amit Lalge for their alleged involvement in submitting fraudulent export documents of 16 companies, including shipping bills, claiming to have paid GST and seeking refunds total Rs. 175.
Mohan Jagdale, the investigating officer, stated that the accused were presented before the special ACB court and remanded to police custody.
Last week, the ACB has arrested Kiran Bhanusal (31), a custom clearing agent, who had been on the run since March after the ACB filed an FIR. The police arrested Contractor and Lalge on Monday and took custody of Shaikh from Aurthur Road Jail on Wednesday where he was previously arrested by the CBI in a Rs. 2,200 crore cheating case.
In the fresh case the accused, along with some wanted individuals, conspired, obtained Aadhaar and PAN details of unemployed persons under the protect of providing them with good jobs and money, took affidavits, and created 16 fictitious companies in their names. They then submitted 39 tax refund applications.
“Sales tax official Amit Lalge bluntly abused his official position. Though he was not authorized to clear a tax reruns file exceeding Rs. 5 lakh, he disregarded the protocol and cleared files,” said a senior ACB official. The officer said that Shaikh, an alleged notorious fraudster, orchestrated the entire scam. The ED and CBI have also booked him in cheating and conspiracy cases.
The scam was uncovered after the sales tax department conducted an audit and discovered that a group of 16 companies had submitted tax refund applications without paying any tax to the exchequer. In March this year, the ACB booked Lalge and 16 unknown traders for causing a wrongful loss of Rs. 175 crore to the govt.
The internal audit reveal that Lalge, attached to the state GST department, had colluded with unknown persons. Based on the GST complaints, the ACB booked Lalge and 16 unknown companies under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC related to cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust. According to the ACB, the scam occurred between Aug 2021 and March 2022.
Source: The Times of India
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