GST scam: Gujarat court sends journalist Mahesh Langa to 4-day police remand

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Journalist Mahesh Langa was on Saturday sent to police custody for four days by a Gujarat court in Rajkot in connection with a Rs 60-lakh GST scam involving a company named Parmar Enterprises.

Earlier on Friday, the Rajkot Economic Offences Wing brought Langa to the city on transit remand from Sabarmati jail. Langa was lodged in jail in connection with fake GST billing cases.

During the court hearing on Saturday, the police sought Langa’s custody for 14 days but the judge granted them only four days’ remand.

The EoW felt the need to grill Langa after questioning five accused arrested as part of the investigation into an earlier fake billing case.

During the questioning of the five accused, the name of a company linked to Langa had come to light, according to the police.

A few days ago, Rajkot Police raided 14 places simultaneously, in which action was taken in Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Veraval, Kadi, Mahesana, Gandhinagar, Shapar, Rajkot and five people were arrested.

The EoW’s investigation revealed that the GST scam was executed using a company named “Parmar Enterprises”, which facilitated several fraudulent activities linked to GST. It was created using a fake rental agreement to obtain a GST number.

Using this fake company, several other companies participated in the GST fraud. The companies involved in this criminal activity include Yash Developers, Ikara Enterprises, Civil Plus Engineering, Dhanshree Metal, DA Enterprises, Aryan Associates, Jyoti Infrastructure, Arham Steel, Riddhi Infrastructure, Ashapura Trading, Shiv Milan Plastics, Globetra Impex, Maa Durga Steel, Maruti Nandan Construction, and Lakhubha Nanbha.

These companies engaged in fraudulent billing, forgery, the use of fake documents, and false declarations, leading to millions of rupees in GST fraud through the use of bogus invoices.

Parmar Enterprises was involved in GST fraud in cities such as Mehsana, Junagadh, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Gir Somnath, and Jamnagar in Gujarat.

Another company ‘DA Enterprises’ was involved in the majority of the undisclosed transactions in the scam. This is the same company linked to Langa, who has been implicated in several GST fraud cases.

–IANS

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