Chartered Accountant arrested for input tax credit fraud

New Delhi, Aug 25 The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) Gurugram Zonal Unit (GZU) has arrested a Delhi Chartered Accountant (CA) on charges of creation of fake firm in order to fraudulently pass on fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) without actual supply of goods or services.

The CA has been identified as Manish Modi, a resident of Pitampura, New Delhi.

The arrest has been made on the basis of investigation launched by the DGGI in the fake ITC case involving a sum of Rs 176 crore. In this case fake ITC was passed on by Sanjay Goel of Redamancy World, and Deepak Sharma, the de-facto controller of eight non-existent firms.

Once the racket was busted by the DGGI, Goel and Sharma were the first ones tobe arrested. On further investigation, the role of two more key persons, Manish Modi and Gaurav Agarwal surfaced. Subsequently, DGGI arrested Modi.

It was found that Manish Modi is managing/controlling fake firms Nivaran Enterprises, and Panchwati Enterprises through which he has fraudulently passed on fake ITC to the tune of Rs 36 crore. Further he has also been found in possession of incriminating evidence indicating many more such firms might be controlled/managed by him for similar purposes. Further investigation for the same is under way, said the police.

The name of Gaurav Agarwal, Partner of Agarwal & Company (authorised dealer of ITC) has also emerged as another key person involved in the instant racket of fraud ITC. He had fraudulently passed on fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) amounting to Rs 15 crore (including GST and Cess), thus has been arrested by DGGI on similar charges.

Accordingly, Manish Modi and Gaurav Agarwal were arrested on August 23 and produced before the Duty Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi, who ordered their judicial custody for 14 days. Fake ITC of more than Rs 36 crore and 15 crore, respectively, were fraudulently passed on by the two persons.

Further investigations in the matter are under progress.