27 Bogus Firms, ₹108 Crore Fake ITC: Five Named in GST Scam

Punjab Police have booked five individuals for allegedly running a fake GST invoice racket involving transactions worth over ₹3,000 crore , officials said on Saturday.

The accused are Amit Kumar Goyal , his brother Manish Kumar , Gaurav Aggarwal of Mandi Gobindgarh, and Gurdeep Singh and Balwant Singh from Fatehgarh Sahib. The case was registered on a complaint filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) Assistant Director Suraj Kumar Yadav .

According to investigators, the accused created a network of shell companies using common addresses, phone numbers and email IDs to generate fake GST invoices and route funds through multiple entities. The money was eventually transferred to Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) accounts maintained with IDFC First Bank .

The complaint alleges that large amounts of cash were withdrawn to evade Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) provisions under the Income Tax Act. Authorities found that 25 bank accounts were used to withdraw ₹3,089.57 crore .

The fraud was detected during an investigation by the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI). Officials said the accused floated 27 bogus firms and fraudulently claimed ₹108.49 crore in input tax credit (ITC) against bogus billing worth ₹720.97 crore .

Two firms were allegedly registered using Amit Goyal's PAN, while the remaining entities were created using the KYC documents of financially vulnerable individuals.

During searches, investigators seized 54 cheque books, 46 ATM cards, 11 PAN cards, stamps, mobile phones and laptops . Amit Goyal, described as an "entry operator" since 2018, allegedly admitted to facilitating cash transactions for a commission. Officials said no actual movement of goods took place and the transactions existed only on paper.

Further investigation is underway.