Pune Resident Arrested By GST Intelligence In Major ITC Refund Fraud Case

Pune/Mumbai, 21 August 2021: The Mumbai Zonal Unit of Directorate General of GST Intelligence, CBIC, (DGGI-MZU) has busted a major ITC refund fraud case and arrested Santosh Doshi, who was controlling and operating 07 companies/ firms viz M/s. Amal Overseas Pvt Ltd, M/s. C-Kluster Expotrade Pvt. Ltd., M/s. Ekon Crystalmerchants Pvt. Ltd., M/s. Meticulous Overseas Pvt. Ltd., M/s. Ninad Overseas Pvt. Ltd., M/s. Parees Overseas Pvt. Ltd., M/s. White Opal Expotrade Pvt. Ltd., who had fraudulently availed Input Tax Credit (ITC) without any supply of goods and services on the strength of bogus invoices and claimed Rs 118 Crore as refund against exports.

The modus operandi involved in this financial fraud was that several dummy units were created in the States of Jharkhand and West Bengal on the basis of forged documents. They passed on the said bogus ITC to several shell trading firms acting as intermediary entities situated in the State of Chhattisgarh. Further, several units were created as exporting fronts at Pune and Mumbai in the State of Maharashtra to whom the units situated in the State of Chhattisgarh supplied fictitious goods purported to be exported. The exporting units were created merely for the purpose of availing refund in a fraudulent manner.

To nab the master mind behind the whole channel of financial fraud, DGGI, Mumbai launched an operation, by searching concerned CHAs, CAs, CSs, key persons and freight forwarders and several statements were recorded. It was revealed that  Santosh Doshi, a resident of Pune, Maharashtra, who is also the Managing Director of M/s Masumi Overseas Pvt. Ltd., was actually the promoter and operator of these 07 exporting firms. The accused created a complex web using multiple layers of transactions starting from manufacturers to traders in between and ultimately to exporters to facilitate encashment of accumulated ITC.

Santosh Doshi was arrested on 17.08.2021 and has been remanded to judicial custody, He is a habitual offender and has also been arrested previously in 2016 by Mumbai Customs.

Further investigation is in progress.