ED provisionally attaches ₹15 crore worth of properties over GST fraud

New Delhi: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached ten immovable properties valued at ₹15.41 crore in Kolkata and Howrah as part of its probe into an alleged GST fraud spanning three states and involves 135 shell companies.

The attached assets belong to one Amit Gupta, one of the alleged masterminds of the fraud, the ED said in a statement Tuesday. The agency's Ranchi zonal office had launched an investigation based on multiple complaints filed by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Jamshedpur, against an alleged criminal syndicate led by Shiva Kumar Deora, Amit Gupta, Sumit Gupta, and Amit Agarwal alias Vicky Bhalotia.

The Directorate of Enforcement said its investigation revealed that the accused-who are currently under judicial custody-created and operated a network of 135 shell companies across Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Delhi to orchestrate a sophisticated fraud.