Pramesh S Jain
The Enforcement Wing (South Zone) of the Commercial Taxes Department,Government of Karnataka,has busted a massive interstate fake invoicing racket involving fraudulent transactions worth Rs.1,464 crore, leading to the arrest of four persons.
Acting on specific human intelligence inputs and sustained surveillance of suspicious GST activities, officials uncovered a well-organised cartel operating across Karnataka and Tamilnadu.
The racket involved commodities such as cement,iron and steel,and other construction materials,with forged inward and outward supply transactions generated without any actual movement of goods.
According to officials,the accused used fabricated documents to fraudulently avail and pass on Input Tax Credit (ITC),causing significant revenue loss to the exchequer.
Coordinated search and seizure operations were carried out simultaneously at multiple locations in Bengaluru, Chennai,Vellore and Pernampattu.
During the raids,officers seized 24 mobile phones,51 SIM cards,two pen drives, bank statements,and several rubber stamps linked to different business entities.
Two brothers from Tamilnadu—Irbaz Ahmed and Nafiz Ahmed—were apprehended from Pernampattu.
Investigators revealed that the duo had floated several fake firms,including Trion Traders,Wonder Traders,Royal Traders and Galaxy Enterprises, to generate bogus invoices.
Two more accused—Eddala Pratap and Revati—were arrested in Bengaluru.
They allegedly created multiple shell entities such as Power Steel and Cement,P.R.Construction,S.V.Traders and S.R.S.Cement Steel Traders to facilitate the fake transactions.
All four accused were produced before the Special Court for Economic Offences in Bengaluru,which remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.
The operation was led by the Additional Commissioner, with overall coordination by Deputy Commissioners of Commercial Taxes (DCCTs) Bharthesh S M and Mahadeva C,based on actionable intelligence and round-the-clock monitoring of GST filings and financial trails.
The Commercial Taxes Department stated that further investigations are underway and more such enforcement actions will continue as part of its drive to curb tax evasion and strengthen GST compliance.
