Mangaluru : The officials from the Preventive Unit of Central GST (CGST) have arrested two persons from Sirsi, Uttara Kannada, involved in a fake invoice racket that had resulted in GST evasion of Rs 17 crore.

The arrested are Suresh Chatrabhoja Bhanushali and Shridhar Hegde, owners of M/s Shrinivas Traders and M/s Shyam Traders, Sirsi. They are said to be part of the group involved in this racket. They have been produced before the District Magistrate here, who remanded them into CGST custody till April 1, as investigation is ongoing.

According to CGST officials, during a careful analysis of documents and digital returns filed was carried out by the officers of Mangaluru CGST, Preventive Unit, it was noticed that an organised group was issuing invoices without actual supply of arecanuts and therefore investigations, including verification and searches, was conducted by Preventive Unit in areas of Sirsi, Puttur, Mangaluru, Chitradurga, of various registered premises of suspected group members including transporters.

Most of the premises were found to be not existing, completely empty or without any furniture/computers/records etc. indicating the premises were being used only as a front to get registration under GST and carry out their illegal activities. Various incriminating documents, telephone recordings have been seized by the CGST officers pointing to a GST evasion of around Rs 17 crore against which recovery to the tune of Rs 3.2 crore have been affected by CGST.

Imamuddin Ahmad, Commissioner, CGST supervised the team of CGST officers led by Rajesh Poojari, Assistant Commissioner and comprising of Rajgopal K and Pushpendra Singh, Superintendents and Partha Sarathy Dey,Shailendra Jain, Arpit Kamra and Mr Abhinav Kumar, Inspectors.