The Economic Offence Wing of Thane police has arrested a 49-year-old man for forging bills and documents in filing GST returns. The police claimed he had cheated for Rs 85 crore to the GST.
The police said the arrested accused has been identified as Ashok Musafir Rajbhar (49), a resident of Kalyan. Rajbhar started a firm named SCS hardware and networking firm. In December 2017 and January 2018, Rajbhar submitted his documents at the GST office to get the GSTin number for his firm.
Accordingly, he filed a GST return for Rs 474,33,63,506 by submitting bills and other documents. "He generated input and output bills to show that his firm had done so much of the job. However, Rs 85,38,05,436 input tax credit was given for the return. The GST officials during investigation found that the firm is just a name and hasn't done any job to file a GST," said a police officer from EOW.
After the GST officials found out about the forgery and foul play, they approached the police to file a complaint. A case was registered on the complaint of Anil Yamghar (34), assistant commissioner of GST. The case has been registered at Kolsewadi police station under sections 465, 468 and 471 of the Indian penal code and relevant section of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017. The case was registered on August 2, 2021, and further investigation was carried out by the economic offence wing of Thane police.
The EOW of Thane police after verifying and gathering evidence arrested the accused on Wednesday. "He was produced in court and has been remanded in police custody till March 9," said Sudhir Kadam, assistant police inspector, EOW, Thane.
The police said Rajbhar is not the only person involved in the matter as it's the job of some chartered accountant or expert who had generated the return.
"Usually we assume that the amount is credited to the account. But the credited amount can be used by any other firm to show the return file," said a police officer who is further trying to break the syndicate behind the foul play and forgery.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
