Kingpin in multi-state fake input tax credit scam lands in police net in Karnataka
The accused, Kailash Bishnoi in his 20s, is a resident of Jalore district in Rajasthan. He was nabbed nearly seven months after he came under the radar of the officials from the South Zone and the vigilance wing of the commercial taxes department.
According to sources, Bishnoi orchestrated the creation of fake GST registrations and bank accounts by fabricating Aadhaar cards and other identification documents. These forged credentials were used to issue tax invoices worth several hundred crores, primarily to aid the clandestine movement of metal scrap and enable recipients to claim bogus input tax credit.
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Bishnoi's operations spanned multiple states, including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Working with a network of associates, he established numerous shell firms and issued fake tax invoices on a massive scale. He is accused of creating 17 fake firms within Karnataka, showing a turnover of Rs 208 crore. Through these entities, nearly Rs 39 crore worth of ineligible ITC was passed on to certain manufacturers, it is said.
The gang's activities came to the fore in Sept 2023 when it tried to open 10 bank accounts under fake identities at HDFC bank in Murugeshpalya. The activity was flagged by the branch manager, prompting a complaint at Jeevanbhimanagar police station. Bishnoi's associate Rohit alias Rohtas was arrested in Dec 2024 from Jigani. The officials seized incriminating materials and digital evidence which provided leads pointing to the involvement of Bishnoi.
"Every time we got close to Bishnoi, he managed to escape," sources said. Over the past six months, teams from the commercial taxes department and Bengaluru East division police made trips to Rajasthan in pursuit of him. "He remained elusive by moving across various states. He used 14 different phone numbers to avoid detection," sources added. The officials sought the help of Rajasthan's additional director general of police (crime) along with superintendent of police (Jalore) and succeeded in tracking Bishnoi, who was finally apprehended on the basis of a warrant issued by the special court for economic offences.
Probe revealed that Bishnoi got into the fraudulent business to make quick bucks by exploiting the loopholes in the system. "We are yet to get more details from him about his operations in other states. We will also get details about the business entities from across the country that have used his services to cause revenue losses, running into hundreds of crores of rupees, to the exchequer," sources said.
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