The Chennai unit of GST intelligence busted the racket which involved 59 companies passing on Input Tax Credit worth ₹175.88 crore for a taxable value of ₹973.64 crore, a report by India Today has stated.

Earlier on 22 June, his accomplice was arrested from Perambur. With the information provided by him during the interrogation, the mastermind was arrested the very next day, a report by NDTV stated.

The alleged mastermind and his accomplices took Aadhaar card, PAN card details of poor people in the name of promising them bank loans, however, used it to create fake companies in their names.

It was found that the accused reportedly used phones with contacts saved as aliases, foreign SIM cards, remote access software to carry out the fraud.

The GST intelligence unit has seized the mobile phones, modems, laptops, SIM cards while 25 bank accounts have been frozen and 20 GST registrations were also cancelled.

As per the report, he allegedly used remote-access software, foreign SIM cards, phones with contacts saved as aliases allegedly for bill-trading activities. The PAN and Aadhar credentials of a person from the lower income group was allegedly used to create fictitious companies in their names for availing loans.

Earlier, on 29 May, an owner of a private firm and another person were arrested in Madhya Pradesh's Indore for allegedly using fake bills to avail input tax credit to the tune of more than ₹12 crore under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), an official from the Central GST Commissionerate had said. 

The firm involved in the purchase and sale of food grains, allegedly furnished fake bills and availed input tax credit of more than ₹12 crore, the official told PTI. The co-accused allegedly provided fake bills of bogus firms to the company owner through a Gujarat-based broker, he had said.