• Notification Date: 26-12-2022
• Notification No: N/A

Three Arrested for GST Fraud in Chandigarh

Three accused individuals identified as Jitender Singh Bhalla alias Vicky, 39, of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajeev Poonga, 55, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, and Pushp Behal, 49, of PGI Society, Sector 49, have been arrested by the police. They are allegedly involved in a GST fraud, and have been availing input credit based on fake invoices wherein they cheated the government of ₹5 crore. 

Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) arrested these three men on Friday on the charges of being involved an alleged goods and services tax (GST) fraud. Police officials said they uncovered transactions of ₹5 crore made by a shell company as identified by the fake invoices. 

The accused have been identified as Jitender Singh Bhalla alias Vicky, 39, of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajeev Poonga, 55, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, and Pushp Behal, 49, of PGI Society, Sector 49. They are allegedly involved in a GST fraud which has been executed by availing input credit based on fake invoices wherein they cheated the government of ₹5 crore. 

A case, under Sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (all forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), had earlier been registered at the Sector 17 police station on December 13, 2019, following the complaint of Deepa Chaudhary ETO, the then proper officer, ward no. 9, excise and taxation department, Sector 17, against Rajeev Poonga, proprietor of Vinita Enterprises, Dhanas, Chandigarh. The complainant had alleged that proprietor Rajeev has obtained a registration under various GST Acts along with his other associates. As per registration application applied on the GST portal, the main business of the firm was supplying scrap. 

The excise and taxation inspector, however, submitted a report in January 2019 that there was no business activity conducted at the business premises rather there was a dental clinic namely Dr. Urmila Arora and Rajiv Kumar Nandini Dental Clinic running at the place of business. During the period of registration from July 2018, the accused has generated fake invoices of sales and purchased to avail GST benefits. 

During further investigation, it was found that accused Pushp, who was running a dhaba at Sector 40 took the documents of Rajeev and misused the same. He stated that Jatinder is the master mind of the scam. He had also opened a firm namely SAI Enterprises at Jagadhri, Yamunanagar through Pushp, against which a case is also registered. The police said the accused Jatinder was already involved in the scrap dealing business and advised and guided Rajeev and Pusp during the operations.