Commercial Tax dept. busts inter-State racket involved in forging invoices and made ₹1,464 cr. worth fraudulent transactions

The Enforcement Wing (South Zone) of the Commercial Taxes Department has busted a massive inter-State racket that was allegedly involved in making fake invoices and made fraudulent transactions to the tune of ₹1,464 crore.

Four persons have been arrested. Acting on specific intelligence inputs and sustained surveillance of suspicious GST activities, officials uncovered a well-organised cartel operating across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. 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, said a statement from the department.

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, the 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 Tamil Nadu, Irbaz Ahmed and Nafiz Ahmed, were apprehended from Pernampattu. Investigators alleged 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 in judicial custody for 14 days.