Police in Pune’s Koregaon Park registered a case involving criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery against eight individuals, including alleged mastermind Asraf Ibrahim Kalawadiya (50) from Surat. The group is accused of setting up 246 fake companies across 13 states to evade Goods and Services Tax (GST) worth between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 8,000 crore, reported The Times of India.
The events allegedly took place between September 2018 and March 2024. The case was filed by the GST department after discovering that Pathan Enterprises, a non-existing firm at Shiv Chaitanya Colony in Hadapsar, evaded Rs 20.25 crore in taxes.
Kalawadiya is currently in judicial custody at Yerawada Central Prison following his arrest on March 13, 2024, by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Pune zonal unit. His seven associates are still at large.
Senior intelligence officer Rishi Prakash from the DGGI told ToI, “GST officials found that the cellphone number and the email address used for registering Pathan Enterprises with them were used to register multiple bogus firms, but none of them paid taxes ranging from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crore for the above-mentioned period.”
Senior inspector Runal Mulla, from Koregaon Park police, mentioned that a preliminary inquiry was conducted based on the GST official’s complaint, and an FIR was registered post-verification. The investigation has now been handed over to the Economic Offences Wing.
Rs 8,000 GST scam shocker
Prakash, who filed the complainant, said, “Pathan Enterprises was registered in the name of Pathan Shabbir Khan Anwar Khan. His PAN card helped the investigators in tracing his address to Khumbarwada locality in Bhavnagar in Gujarat. Khan told investigators that he was an autorickshaw driver and claimed to be clueless about the enterprises run in his name.”
Further investigation revealed a bank account in Rajkot, Gujarat, under the name of Jeet Kukadiya, who claimed to be a security guard and unaware of the account’s operations. Prakash added that Kalawadiya was identified as the mastermind after analyzing bank statements and call records. He was tracked to a hotel in Mira Bhayander in Mumbai, where a search led to the recovery of multiple cellphones, laptops, SIM cards, cheque books, debit cards, and rubber stamps.
Kalawadiya admitted to opening numerous fake firms and bank accounts using forged documents for fraudulent transactions to evade taxes. He falsely claimed to run a scrap material business. However, the investigation showed that fake invoices were issued to 246 bogus entities, enabling them to avail input tax credits without paying GST. He had previously been arrested by the DGGI in Surat in 2022.
