Mumbai, 27 October: The team of Goods and Services Tax Department (GST) has arrested Ashraf Bhai Ismail Kalavadia, accused of GST evasion of eight thousand crores with fake documents, from a lodge in Mira Road. The GST team has seized 21 mobiles, two laptops, 11 SIM cards, debit cards, cheque books, rubber stamps in the name of different companies from Kalavadia. Kalavadia was arrested and presented in Shivajinagar Court of Pune and the court has sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
According to Senior Police Inspector Runal Mulla of Koregaon Park Police Station, GST Pune Division officer Rishi Prakash (39) had filed a case of GST evasion of five thousand to eight thousand crores rupees by submitting documents in the name of a fake company at Koregaon Park Police Station. After investigating the matter, the police have registered a case against Ashraf Ibrahim Kalvadia, Nitin Bhagoji Barge, Faisal Abdul Gaffar Mevawala, Nizamuddin Mohammad Saeed Khan, Amit Tejbahadur Singh, Rahul Batukbhaiya Baraiya, Kaushik Makwana, Jitendra Gohel and their associates. Of these, the main accused Ashraf Ibrahim was arrested by the GST team on Saturday and was produced in court in Pune. While the search for other accused is on.
According to Runal Mulla, GST officer Rishi Prakash, while checking the account of Pathan Enterprises online in October 2023, found that no purchase or sale of goods was done by Pathan Enterprises, only payment was made. After this, when Pathan Enterprises was searched, it was found that the address given for GST registration was fake. The concerned company was registered in the name of Pathan Shabbir Khan Anwar Khan, while the search revealed that Pathan Shabbir Khan Anwar Khan was a rickshaw driver in Bhavnagar, Gujarat and had no information about the same Pathan Enterprises. The bank account of this company was opened in the name of Jeet Kukdia, investigation revealed that he is a security guard.
When the GST investigation team probed in Pune, Mumbai as well as Rajkot, Bhavnagar area of โโโโGujarat, it was found that Ashraf bhai Kalavadia, along with his accomplices Nitin Barj, Faisal Mevawala, Amit Singh, Jitendra Gohel, Kaushik Makwana, Rahul Baraiya and associates, hatched a conspiracy to evade GST tax. He set up 246 companies in fake names to avoid GST tax and evaded tax through fake documents by taking money from tax evading businessmen. The complaint issued by the GST office states that the accused have evaded government tax of Rs 5 to 8 thousand crore from September 2018 to March 2024. The GST team and the Koregaon police station team are investigating this matter thoroughly.
