The man, a resident of Chennai, was arrested from Bengaluru airport. (Representational)
A 34-year-old alleged mastermind of a fake input tax credit racket, which caused a loss of Rs 176 crore to the government by floating fictitious companies in the names of poor people and raising fake invoices, has been arrested while attempting to flee the country.
Officials from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (Chennai Zonal Unit) said the Chennai resident and his accomplices acquired Aadhaar and PAN details of poor people by promising them bank loans and then floated many fictitious companies in their names.
"Many companies had engaged this alleged mastermind, who had created fictitious companies and raised invoices to the tune of Rs 175.88 crore for a taxable value of Rs 973.64 crore," an official from the GST (Goods and Services Tax) intelligence unit told NDTV.
An accomplice of the man had been arrested on June 22 and, based on information given by him during his interrogation, the mastermind was arrested from Bengaluru airport the next day, while he was trying to flee the country.
Officials said the fraudsters were very careful and used remote access software, foreign SIM cards and exclusive phones to perpetrate the fraud. The intelligence unit, however, used IP address tracking, analysis of cryptic WhatsApp chats, and conducted simultaneous searches at multiple locations to nab them.
The unit said 25 bank accounts have been frozen, 20 GST registrations have been cancelled and mobile phones, modems, laptops and SIM cards have been seized.