Ludhiana: Two bank officers booked for helping accused in GST scam
Ludhiana, December 25, 2020: Under the ongoing investigation by the anti evasion wing of the Ludhiana CGST Commissionerate in the Sahil Jain case, FIR has been lodged by the department against the Branch Manager and the Assistant Manager of Capital Small Finance Bank, Sunder Nagar, for forgery, fraud, cheating and abetment to an offence invoking various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Under the case which involves 393 crore fake invoices fraud, an appalling fact has come to the fore on Friday It has been learnt in the dusking hours of 24.12.2020 that the bank accounts and bank Locker of Sahil Jain maintained in Capital Small Finance Bank Ltd., Sunder Nagar, Ludhiana, was operated by the accused on 12.11.2020 at 12.15pm.
This has raised many brows in the tax department. This was because on 11.11.2020 itself Sahil Jain was arrested by the department under CGST Act 2017 and sent to judicial custody on 11.11.2020 itself. Sahil Jain is the main accused behind creating 23 bogus firms leading to a GST scam involving an ITC fraud of Rs. 33 crore. Questions were raised as to how could it possible that Sahil Jain operated his Locker Account on 12.11.2020 after being arrested on 11.11.2020 and sent to judicial custody the same day.
Commissionerate sources informed that thereafter, the Branch Manager and Assistant Manager of the Bank were summoned by the department and their statements were recorded on 24.12.2020, wherein they confessed that the Locker was infact operated by Yashita Jain, the wife of Sahil Jain in the morning of 12.11.2020.
The Branch manager admitted to have directed the Assistant manager of the branch to allow Yashita Jain to operate the Locker who made the entry and forged the signature of Sahil Jain in the Locker Operation Register maintained in the bank on the directions of his branch Manager misleading the department that the Locker was operated by Sahil Jain himself. It is pertinent to mention here that Yashita Jain wife of Sahil Jain is also partner in a number of these firms which are involved in issuance of bogus bills and passing on fake Input Tax Credit (ITC).
A police complaint (FIR) has been lodged by the department against the Branch Manager and the Assistant Manager for forgery, fraud, cheating and abetment to an offence invoking various sections of the Indian Penal Code.'
On Thursday, one of the accused Amandeep Singh Bhui of Ludhiana was also arrested by the department. He has been remanded to judicial custody. Bhui and Sahil Jain has been caught carrying out GST fraud by wrongfully availing ITC as well as passing on of fake ITC without any actual supply of goods.