Two members of a syndicate were arrested for generating fake Goods and Services Tax (GST) invoices to the tune of crores of rupees using PAN cards and mobile phone numbers of several people, police said on Saturday. The accused also replaced the contact details of genuine GST-registered firms on the website of the GST department and used them to generate false invoices, police said.
The accused were identified as Inderpal Singh, 45, who is a lawyer, and his associate Sandeep Kumar, 27. The complaint in this case was registered recently by a businessman who said that when he applied for GST registration for his firm, he discovered that two GST numbers had already been issued on his PAN card without his knowledge.
“The fraudsters also acquired SIM cards using the complainant’s Aadhaar card. We registered a case of impersonation, cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy and started an investigation,” said deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Amit Goel.
Police approached the GST department and acquired the details of the two firms for which GST numbers had been issued using the complainant’s PAN card. Police found that the two firms’ listed addresses were fake. Police managed to track down one of the accused through technical surveillance and manual verification, and arrested Sandeep Kumar from Panipat in Haryana. Kumar revealed that he was an employee of Inderpal Singh, and they created bogus firms, police said. Police then arrested Singh from Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, the DCP said.
“They obtained details of firms registered under the GST Act from other members of the syndicate. Their associates provided them with the login details of the firms. After logging into the accounts on the GST department’s website,the accused replaced the email IDs and phone numbers linked to the firms with their own. Then they contacted those who needed GST bills, and issued fake bills on the names of these firms. Inderpal revealed that he procured details of GST-registered firms from his associate by paying ₹25,000 to ₹30,000. His earnings were in lakhs of rupees through the cyber fraud,” added DCP Goel.
Three smartphones, one laptop and a pen drive used by the accused to commit the cyber fraud were recovered, police said.