Police bust granite transport gang, 4 held in Ongole

Ongole: The Prakasam police busted a gang of four members who are transporting granite worth Rs 290.50 crores illegally by creating fake documents and evaded Rs 52.20 crore tax and Rs 33 crore royalty to the government, on Tuesday.

Acting on a complaint from Addanki Tax Assistant Commissioner VP Srinivasa Rao, the district police found the addresses of firms, who are evading GST due to the government and the contacts of registered owners are not traceable. Based on the instructions of the SP Siddharth Kaushal, a special team was formed a special team.

In inquiry, the police found that Jampani Venkata Subbarao and Chebrolu Ramesh of Chilakaluripet, Lolugu Gouri Naidu of Pondur mandal in Srikakulam, Erragopu Mahendra of Parchur mandal run an ad campaign online and collected the identity and residence proofs of more than 100 individuals offering loan at low-interest rates.

They used the proofs to float 278 granite trading firms with fake addresses in the limits of Addanki, Chilakaluripet, Chirala, Ongole I and Ongole II CTO offices and received GST numbers. They used those GST numbers to generate 18,239 e-way bills for transporting the granite.

They used fake addresses and evaded the tax of Rs 52.20 crore and royalty of Rs 33 crore on 6.39 square feet granite stone transported from February 6, 2018. The special police team arrested four accused in Martur on Tuesday and seized a car, motorcycle, mobile phones along with proofs of nearly 100 people.

Meanwhile, Collector Dr Pola Bhaskara said asked the staff to form flying squads stop illegal transport of granite from Chimakurthy and Ballikurava.