3 people held for GST fraud in Chandigarh

The three accused, identified as Jitender Singh Bhalla alias Vicky, 39, of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajeev Poonga, 55, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, and Pushp Behal, 49, of PGI Society, Sector 49, are allegedly involved in a GST fraud — executed by availing input credit based on fake invoices wherein they cheated the government of ₹5 crore

During the period of registration from July 2018, the three accused intentionally generated bogus invoices of sales and purchased to avail GST benefits. (HT Photo)

Police's economic offences wing (EOW) arrested three men on Friday in relation with an alleged goods and services tax (GST) fraud. Police officials said they uncovered transactions of ₹5 crore made by a shell companies as identified by the fake invoices.

The accused, identified as Jitender Singh Bhalla alias Vicky, 39, of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajeev Poonga, 55, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, and Pushp Behal, 49, of PGI Society, Sector 49, are allegedly involved in a GST fraud — executed by availing input credit based on fake invoices wherein they cheated the government of ₹5 crore.

A case, under Sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (all forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), had earlier been registered at the Sector 17 police station on December 13, 2019, following the complaint of Deepa Chaudhary ETO, the then proper officer, ward no. 9, excise and taxation department, Sector 17, against Rajeev Poonga, proprietor of Vinita Enterprises, Dhanas, Chandigarh.

The complainant had alleged that proprietor Rajeev, in connivance with other associates, obtained a registration under various GST Acts. As per registration application applied on the GST portal, the main business of the firm was supplying scrap.