Ranchi, August 7 (IANS) — The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched a new offensive in its investigation of a ₹800 crore Goods and Services Tax (GST) scam, raiding six premises in Ranchi on Thursday.
The raids are targeting associates of Kolkata-based businessman Shiv Kumar Deora, who is suspected to be the main architect of the scam.
One major location under scrutiny was the office-residence of businessman Krishna Thakkar at Krishna Apartment, P.P. Compound. Additional coordinated raids were simultaneously carried out at five other city locations.
Reports suggest that parallel enforcement actions are also ongoing in Kolkata and Mumbai. These follow-up operations stem from documents and intelligence uncovered in the first phase of the investigation.
Previously, the ED had arrested multiple suspects connected to the scam, including Vicky Bhalotia, Gyanchandra (Bablu) Jaiswal, Shiv Kumar Deora, Amit Gupta, and Sumit Gupta.
According to ED findings, the accused used numerous shell companies to fabricate fake invoices and claim fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC), enabling large-scale tax avoidance without real transactions.
The investigation has now progressed to the second phase, focused on dismantling the wider syndicate involved in the scam. Authorities believe many more individuals were part of the conspiracy across several states.
Officials expect fresh revelations and further arrests in the coming days.
Last month, two Ranchi businessmen, Lav Agarwal and Gulbahar Malik, were also arrested by the GST Intelligence team in connection with this broader network.
Earlier in March 2024, the Jamshedpur regional office uncovered a ₹132 crore GST racket and arrested Deora for fraudulently generating fake invoices using dummy firms.
With inputs from IANS