ACB Delhi arrested GSTO
A major scam has come to light in the GST department of national capital Delhi. The scam has been carried out in such a way that even the officials of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) were stunned. In fact, GST department officials along with lawyers have created more than 500 fake firms and collected crores of rupees in the form of refunds. In which ACBA Rs. 54 crore has been traced, while efforts are on to trace the malpractice of the remaining amount.
After all the facts related to this scam came to light, ACB registered a case under various sections including fraud and arrested 1 GSTO, 3 lawyers, 2 transporters and 1 fake firm owner. According to ACB officials involved in the investigation of the case, fake currency worth Rs 718 crore has been unearthed so far. At the same time, Rs 54 crore has also been traced as GST refund. According to officials, this Rs 54 crore has been returned to the owners of only 96 fake firms. While the information of more than 500 such fake firms has been found.
GSTO has done such a big fraud
In such a situation, the amount of fraud is likely to increase manifold as the investigation of the case progresses. According to ACB officials, the refund has been done by showing the export of medicines and other medical items on the paper issued. During the investigation, it was found that an official of the GST department had perpetrated such a huge scam with the connivance of lawyers who were running fake firms. As per the case diary prepared by the ACB, 404 refunds were granted to these companies in the year 2021-22.
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Claim approval and payment within two days
35.51 crore rupees was paid in return. In 2022-23, this refund was only 7 lakh rupees. During the investigation, it was found that when the claim for this refund came from the firm, GSTO not only cleared it but also made the payment within two days. After this, when there was a further increase in the refund claims in the year 2023-24, the departmental officials got suspicious and got the matter investigated and the whole affair came to light. ACB is investigating the case since then.
This is how the scam was perpetrated
According to ACB officials, on July 26, 2021, on a firm transfer to Ward No. 22, 53 people claimed to travel from Ward No. 6 to Ward No. 22. GSTO cleared the claim in just two days. Later, the GST department investigated all these firms based on suspicion of irregularities. It was found that no such firm existed either before or now at the said place. After this the case was transferred to ACB. After preliminary investigation of the case, ACB has registered an FIR under relevant sections and now arrested 6 people including GSTO and lawyers in the case.
