Rs 300 cr bogus billing scam: Mastermind held from Porbandar village

Rajkot: Rajkot SGST department sleuths arrested Pravin Tanna, the alleged mastermind in the Rs 300 crore bogus billing scam that was busted last month.
According to GST officials, they got a tip-off that Tanna was hiding near a village in Porbandar. They arrested him on Monday and produced him for court on Tuesday and secured his one day remand.
The GST officials have already arrested Sanjay Mashru last month in connection with the case.Both Mashru and Tanna are residents of Junagadh.
According to officials, the accused duo had floated eight firms, only on paper, to generate bogus GST bills. The scam came to light after officials raided 35 premises in Junagadh, Manavadar, Keshod, Dhoraji and Mangrol in July and August.
These accused had used documents of labourers and other needy people to obtain GST numbers for their shell firms.
Using these GST numbers, the accused generated e-way bills worth Rs 304 crore for supply of peanuts to traders in other states and also used the invoices to get input tax credit. “By doing this the accused evaded tax of Rs 15.21 crore. There is provision in the law that if the tax evasion is of more than Rs 5 crore then it becomes a non-bailable offence,” said a GST official.