GST officer, 3 advocates among 7 held by ACB

New Delhi: Seven people, including a GST officer and three lawyers, have been arrested by the Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) for their alleged involvement in a GST fraud, officials said on Monday.

They said GST funds worth over Rs 54 crore were sanctioned to 96 bogus firms. Joint Commissioner of Police, ACB, Madhur Verma said the accused were identified as GST officer Babita Sharma; advocates Raj Singh Saini, Narender Kumar Saini and Mukesh Soni; transporters Surjeet Singh and Lalit Kumar; and a proprietor of one of the fake firms, Manoj Goyal.

While Sharma allegedly sanctioned refunds, the three advocates were the beneficiaries. Surjeet Singh and Lalit Kumar provided fake e-way bills and forged goods receipts to the three advocates in exchange for money and Goyal also benefitted from the refunds, he added.

In September 2021, suspecting foul play in issuing refunds to the fake firms, the GST Department (Vigilance) sent a special team for physical verification of these firms. All these firms were found to be non-existent and non-functional during verification, Verma said.

On October 5, a preliminary inquiry into the matter was ordered under Additional Commissioner (Trade and Taxes) Vivek Aggarwal. Based on the inquiry, the matter was referred to the ACB for a detailed investigation on December 6. During the investigation, it was found that fraudulent GST refunds were approved by the GST officer without verification of Input Tax Credit, a crucial instrument in the identification of bogus refunds, incurring a direct loss to the government exchequer, the officials said.